Page 53 of We Already Dug the Grave

Her wide, wide eyes.

I needed to move. To run at him. To do something. Anything.

But it was as if I’d grown roots like the tree from the stories we’d once whispered after light’s out. The rotting willow, sick and twisted, waiting for a spill of blood.

No. I won’t let him hurt her.

Another choking gasp rattled from my sister.

The sound unleashed something in me, and the idea came in a flash.

Toss the camera.

We’d have no proof of what he’d done, and now he was our enemy. It chilled me to think what this man was capable of.

How long before he hurt somebody else?

Frances’s lips moved, silently mouthing words she couldn’t form. I’m sorry.

Her fingers dropped from her throat, twitching into the sign we’d created long ago. Two fingers, pointed down, and a scratch, scratch, scratch.

I’d promised her I’d always come when she needed me. All she had to do was give the sign.

I couldn’t let her down. I threw the camera.

It arced in the air and Mr. Fortenberry lunged for it, releasing my sister’s neck. She inhaled sharply.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her hands reaching for me, his hands snatching the camera from the air, and then the feeling. The cold weight, my muscles contracting, lifting, lifting.

I took the shovel in both hands and swung. Hard.

The impact from the blow vibrated up the handle and into my arms, my chest. I swung again. There was a crunch. A spray of blood.

The world around me faded to darkness.

My baby bird was safe.

Chapter 20

Now

“It’s not Blake fucking with us, Milly. It’s Burt. He knows.”

The words landed like bomb.

“What do you mean he knows?” I shook my head. “Why…”

“It’s all my fault.” Frances’s gaze dropped to the empty space between us. “I was in denial about how bad it had gotten. In the beginning Burt was amazing. He was bold and exciting and, God, he was just so all-encompassing. I wasn’t used to someone looking at me like I was the center of their world.”

I felt my whole body constrict. Frances offered a placating smile.

“Everyone loved him, Milly, and he chose me. It was like I’d been invisible my whole life, and suddenly people could see me. Believe me. I had no idea he’d become this.” Frances’s lip curled, and she rubbed away the goose bumps that sprung up her forearms. “I thought he loved me and I know I loved him, so I thought it was okay to…”

“To what?” I had a terrible feeling about where this was going. “You thought it was okay to what?”

She lifted her chin and looked me in the eye. “I told him about Shane. One night, after we were married. That secret had been eating me alive, and I had to tell someone. I trusted him. He—”

The room swirled in the edges of my vision. I felt faint, pressing my hand against the wall to steady myself. “How could you?”