Chapter 7
We drove through the night.
Sarah took the first shift while I tried to sleep.
I couldn’t.
I just watched the mile markers pass.
Nashville was four and a half hours from Atlanta.
Linda lived in a small town outside of Nashville, about another hour east.
We pulled into her driveway at three in the morning.
The house was dark.
A small, neat ranch with a white porch and a flower garden that needed weeding.
Ryan’s mom had always been nice to me.
At least, I’d thought she was.
She’d come to our wedding.
She’d held Noah when he was a baby.
She’d sent birthday cards every year.
But she’d also raised Ryan.
And blood was thicker than water.
I got out of the car.
“Wait,” Sarah whispered. “What’s the plan? We just knock on the door at three a.m. and ask for him?”
“I don’t know. But I’m not leaving here without him.”
I walked up the porch steps and rang the doorbell.
Lights came on inside.
A moment later, the door opened.
Linda stood there in her bathrobe, her hair in curlers.
She looked surprised to see me.
But not shocked.
“Emily,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for my son, Linda. Where is he?”
She sighed.
“Come in. Let’s not do this on the porch.”
We followed her inside.
The house smelled like cinnamon and old people.
Noah’s suitcase was open by the couch.
His shoes were by the door.
My heart ached.
“He’s asleep in the guest room,” Linda said, sitting down in her recliner. “Don’t wake him yet. We need to talk.”
“Talk? There’s nothing to talk about. You helped your son kidnap my child. That’s a felony, Linda.”
She didn’t flinch.
“Ryan told me you signed the papers.”
“Ryan forged my signature. You can ask your lawyer. Or you can look at it. I never signed anything agreeing to send Noah here.”
Linda was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, “He told me you had a drinking problem. That you were violent. That you’d thrown things at him. That Noah wasn’t safe at home.”
“And you believed him? Just like that? After knowing me for eight years?”
“He’s my son, Emily. I have to believe him.”
“He’s lying. He’s been cheating on me for two years. He planned this whole thing to get full custody so he wouldn’t have to pay me anything in the divorce. He used you, Linda. Just like he used Noah. Just like he used me.”
I pulled out my phone and showed her the email.
The timeline email.
She read it slowly.
Her face changed as she got to the part about Florida.
To the part about selling the house and starting a new life.
To the part where he admitted the counseling was fake.
She handed the phone back.
She looked older suddenly.
Tired.
“He really said that?”
“Read it yourself. That’s his writing. His words. He never intended for Noah to stay here forever, Linda. He just needed a place to hide him until the court date. Once he wins custody, he’s taking Noah to Florida to be with his girlfriend. You’ll never see him again.”
Linda put her head in her hands.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I swear to God, I didn’t know any of this. He just said Emily needs help. The boy needs a stable home for a little while. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“I know you did,” I said, softer now. “And I don’t blame you for believing your son. But I need you to do the right thing now. Let me take Noah home.”
Before she could answer, a voice came from the hallway.
“Mommy?”
Noah was standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
He was wearing his dinosaur pajamas.
The ones I’d bought him for Christmas.
He looked smaller somehow.
Paler.
Then his face lit up.
“Mommy!”
He ran to me.
I dropped to my knees and caught him.
He smelled like baby shampoo and Linda’s laundry detergent.
I held him so tight I was afraid I’d break him.
“I missed you,” I sobbed into his hair. “I missed you so much, baby.”
“I missed you too,” he said, crying into my shoulder. “Dad said you didn’t want me anymore. He said you were too busy drinking to be my mom.”
I looked up at Linda.
Her face was ashen.
She looked at Noah.
Then at me.
“That’s not true,” I said, pulling back to look at him. “That is never true. I love you more than anything in the whole world. Your dad was lying because he was angry. But I’m here now. And I’m taking you home.”
Noah nodded against my chest.
“Okay.”
Linda stood up.
“Let me get his things.”
She packed his suitcase while Noah got dressed.
She didn’t say much.
She just moved around the house in a daze.
When we were ready to leave, she stopped me at the door.
“Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“When you go to court… tell them I didn’t know. Tell them I was lied to, just like you.”
“I will.”
“And Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“Tell Ryan I said he’s dead to me.”
We got in the car.
Noah fell asleep in the back seat five minutes after we pulled out of the driveway.
Sarah looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“Told you we’d get him back.”
I smiled through my tears.
But the smile faded when I looked at my phone.
Three missed calls.
All from Ryan.
And a text that had come in ten minutes earlier.
I know you’re at my mom’s. Don’t you dare take him. If you leave that property with my son, I will call the Tennessee state police and report you for parental kidnapping. You will be arrested. You will go to jail. And you will never see Noah again.
I looked back at Noah, sleeping peacefully.
Then I texted Ryan back.
Try and stop me.
May you like
I put the phone in my pocket.
“Sarah,” I said. “Drive faster.”
