Page 3 of Secrets Bared
Luke kneeled down and held out his arms. “Hey buddy, I gotta go.”
Aaron stumbled into his hug, and he held on tight. “Do youhaveto?”
Heart breaking, Luke squeezed tighter. “I’m sorry. Be good for Mom, okay?”
His baby brother nodded, and when they stepped apart, Aaron tapped twice over his heart.
Luke’s mouth tried to curve up despite the pain in his chest, but he tapped over the aching organ in their secret code as Momlooked on with a teary smile. He slid into his SUV and backed out of the driveway, with what was left of his family waving at him on the porch.
Chapter 1
MaggieWatsonCallahan’sfingerstrembled as she washed the dishes from breakfast. Her husband, Sean, hated when she ran the dishwasher, claiming it was a waste when it was just the two of them there. Waiting for them to fill the machine usually caused it to smell, which he complained relentlessly about. So, despite the convenience built into their kitchen, she washed everything by hand.
Once she’d done that, she went through the motions of her usual routine, but the anticipation rattled around in her chest like a nervous squirrel. That reminded her of her poor squirrels. She opened the window and dumped the bag of peanuts out onto the sill for them. That would be the last treat they’d get from this house. One approached as she shut the window and started stuffing his cheeks.
“I hope you find someone else to help you get through the winter, Cheeky.” She called them all by the same nickname, not that they understood her. Maggie smiled sadly and pressed her finger to the window. “I’m going to be free, like you.”
But before that could be, she needed to make it look like nothing was amiss. After all, it might not happen today. The courier might miss him, and she would be stuck here another night. The laundry needed folding, Sean’s shirtshadto be ironed, and if things weren’t done when he got home, there would be hell to pay.
Sean had been getting worse. Maggie didn’t dare leave the house without checking for bruises. Long sleeves had become her uniform summer, fall, and winter. People were starting to look at her strangely for wearing sweatshirts in sixty degrees, though. If this plan of hers didn’t work, it would only get worse.
He’d also started talking about kids again. Maggie knew there was no way she could bring a child into this house, or tie herself to him permanently. The IUD she’d secretly had put in at the gynecologist was good for a couple more years. The midwives there were amazing and gave her so much help that had nothing to do with her uterus. Without them, she wouldn’t have hope.
Maggie shook her head. Back to folding the laundry. She put it all away as well, then pulled out the ironing board and forced herself to focus on the shirts Sean insisted she press before he left for the precinct. Not for the first time, she wondered how he managed before she agreed to marry him.
When the last shirt hung cooling in the closet, Maggie dumped the water out of the iron and set it back in its holder on the wall. She hung the ironing board off the hooks below it and headed to the kitchen to make her lunch.
Her phone chimed with an incoming call. Sweat dampened her palms as she dug into her pocket for it. The name on the screen read, “Alex.” This was it: the moment of truth. Had her plan worked?
“H-hello?”
“Great news! Maggie, he’s been served.”
“Holy shit.” Her heart pounded in her chest and her knees shook.
“Remember the plan, Maggie,” her lawyer said calmly. “This is the last time I’ll call you on this phone.”
“Right. The plan.” Her appetite fled the room, and she pounded up the stairs to the second bedroom. They’d set it up as her craft room, not that she did much crafting. It was an excuse to use it for storage.
“Remember to call me once you’re settled.”
“Of course.” Maggie dug through the off-season clothes to the suitcase she’d discreetly been packing all along. She unzipped it quickly just to check that everything was there: the socks and underwear that the dryer supposedly ate, so she’d had an excuse to buy more. A burner phone and payment card she’d turn on once she got out of Oklahoma. Bras she’d been fine to do without, since Sean didn’t let her leave the house much anymore. She put the phone on speaker and hurriedly tugged one on, then pulled her winter coat out of the closet and zipped it up.
She counted the cash she’d surreptitiously taken out every week at the grocery store, Sean never asking to see receipts. It added up over the years she’d been planning this. Going over everything one more time calmed her, because if he’d found her stash, it wouldn’t still all be here.
“Be safe, Maggie. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thank you, Alex.” Maggie couldn’t suffuse her voice with enough gratitude. Alex was part of a non-profit that helped women divorce their abusers pro-bono, and without her, Maggie could never have afforded a lawyer. “From the bottom of my heart, thanks for everything.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Let’s get this finalized first. Andget the hellout of there.”
She zipped the suitcase and picked her phone back up. “I’m going now.”
Alex bid her goodbye and hung up. Maggie headed into the primary bedroom to slip into her sneakers. She might recover her photo albums someday, but she now viewed anything with him in it as tainted. And her relationship with her mother… well, there was no salvaging that, was there?
She laid her phone on the nightstand, then pulled her wedding rings off and laid the gold bands next to the device. Sean had insisted on white gold, despite her telling him she preferred yellow. She stared at her hand, the impression of the rings left behind in her flesh. Maggie felt naked. Bare. Taking them off felt so… final.
Her phone lit up with another call. Maggie’s stomach dropped to the floor. Sean’s name and photo blinked across the screen. “Time to go, Maggie.” She hefted her suitcase and bolted for the stairs.
