Page 71 of The Payback Adventure
That Henry was only planning to work at the farm temporarily, and his time was up. The kids didn’t need to know any more than that. She could save them from finding out he’d lied to them.
Besides, all of them had known Henry would leave when Manny returned. Though Elisabeth hadn’t understood why if he had no job or home to go to. She’d hoped they could change his mind. Thatshewould change his mind.
She’d been a fool. Such a fool.
Of course he wouldn’t stay.
The nurse’s words tortured Elisabeth.He’s a rich playboy who dates famous models and actresses.
Not poor, boring farm girls from Berry Patch.
All her energy, all her strength drained. She sagged against a tiled wall.
No. She couldn’t give up. Elisabeth straightened. She wouldn’t let Henry do that to her. His lies hurt, but she would recover. And so would the kids after he left. They had no other choice.
She opened her purse, found her cell phone, and opened her payment app. Elisabeth had never transferred Cynthia’s money to her bank account. A part of her had been afraid to.
Elisabeth stared at all the zeros. She needed the twenty-five thousand dollars, especially with Caitlin’s head injury, but it had been given to her under false pretenses. So had the help. There was only one thing she could do—return the money.
With a trembling hand, she sent the money back to Cynthia, who could repay her boss.
Henry’s adventure was over.
He could stop lying and start laughing. About his time spent on the struggling farm. About three orphaned kids. About her.
But Elisabeth had a sinking feeling it would be a long time before she or any of the kids would feel like laughing again.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rain pelted the windshield, and Henry struggled to see the highway. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic on I-5, but once they hit Wilsonville…
He fiddled with the knobs on the radio, searching for a traffic report, but heard only static. He turned it off. The two kids sitting in the middle row of the Suburban were quiet. “You guys okay?”
“Is Caitlin dead?” Sam asked.
Henry felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest. Suddenly, quiet didn’t seem so bad. “She’s at the hospital.”
“My parents were at the hospital, but they were dead by the time we got there,” Abby said. “Caitlin could be dead.”
Nausea swept over Henry. He needed to be there with Elisabeth.
“Caitlin’s dead, isn’t she?” Sam asked. “You’re just not telling us.”
Henry gripped the steering wheel. “Your sister was stable when I last saw her.”
“But that was hours ago,” Abby said. “Anything could have happened since then, and we wouldn’t know. You don’t have a cell phone.”
Sometimes Abby was too smart for her own good. He grimaced. “No worst-case-scenario thinking. The doctors are doing everything they can.”
Silence swallowed the car. Or as much silence as one could have in the middle of a rainstorm on a major interstate.
“Was Elisabeth crying when you left her?” Abby asked.
Henry weighed his options. He didn’t want to upset the kids, nor did he want to lie. “She was upset.”
“She never cries,” Abby announced.
Henry had seen Elisabeth cry. The night he’d found her in the living room air-harping. “Never?”
