Page 18 of Lethal Weakness

“Just some of our colleagues.”

Of course.

“I don’t know about this.”

“Don’t be difficult, Linden. Avery deserves a relationship with family.” His words hit a nerve.

He knows that without them, Avery hardly has anyone. I’m an only child, and my parents live all the way in Albany. I’m all alone here, and they know it and use it against me often.

“Fine. I’ll be back at 7:30. Call me if anything changes. Anything.” I lean down to kiss Avery. “Be a good girl for Grandma and Grandpa, okay?”

“I want to stay wiff you.”

“I know, honey. But it’s just dinner. I’ll be back so fast. Promise.” I hold out my pinkie finger, and she mirrors it, locking our little fingers together. “Love you to the moon.”

“To da moon,” she whispers before giving me a big hug.

I’m not ashamed to say that even leaving my daughter for 90 minutes brings a quiver to my bottom lip. It doesn’t feel right to be separated.

I hate when even a single minute goes by that I’m not experiencing the same things she is. What if she gets nervous? Or someone isn’t kind?

What if they don’t order something that she’ll eat?

“Don’t force her to eat anything she doesn’t like,” I call to Edmund as he leads her into the depths of the restaurant. All he gives me is an annoyed wave.

Fucking, dickhead.

I sit in my car for twenty minutes before I build up the courage to leave. I know my attachment to my daughter is a little overboard. But I also know how important it is to protect her.

I don’t believe that her grandparents would ever show ill will towards her, but they definitely do towards me. And that scares me.

I can’t let myself believe that they’d do anything vindictive to get back at me. I won’t let myself, because that just causes my anxiety to soar.

Instead, I go home, pace around my house, and rage clean for 40 minutes before it’s time to drive back to the restaurant.

Except, when I get in my car, the engine won’t turn over.

“No, no, no. I can’t do this right now.” I do all the things that I can think of, pumping my brake pedal, lifting my hood. Nothing is smoking. It’s all just a bunch of black plastic and wires that mean nothing to me.

I glance toward Jack’s house, and when my frantic eyes catch his behind his truck, his entire body stands taller in a snap.

“Can you help me?” I ask with desperation, jogging toward the fence line.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Avery?”

His concern surprises me as if he’s already assuming the worst, but I’m too relieved that he’s on my wavelength to wonder why that is.

“She is at dinner with her grandparents, and I’m supposed to pick her up, but my car won’t start. I need to leave like two minutes ago.”

“Alright, let me look.” For the first time ever, he forges past his property line to mine, breaking the divide between our homes.

He braces his hands under my hood, similarly to how I see him when he’s working on his truck, and starts twisting and pulling at things that I don’t know the function of.

“Try to start it again.”

I lean in my window and turn the key, but nothing happens after endless revving. “It just keeps doing that.” My hands grip my hair. I need to go. I need to get Avery.

“I can try a few more things, but it might need to be taken somewhere for a diagnostics check.”