Chapter 14 - Fifteen Minutes to Freedom
|
I stood at the large bay window in the living room, watching the black town car shrink into the distance until it disappeared entirely beyond the snow-covered pine trees at the end of our street.
The house plunged into a sudden, deafening silence. The only sound was the rhythmic ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the hallway.
I looked down at Harrison, who was sitting on the rug near the Christmas tree, quietly sniffling as he played with a wooden block. My heart shattered for him, but I knew that staying in a home built on a foundation of lies would eventually break him worse than leaving ever could.
I walked into the kitchen and looked at the digital clock on the microwave.
It had been exactly fifteen minutes since Julian’s car drove away. He was safely on the highway, out of turning-back range. The window of opportunity had officially opened.
I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, my fingers flying across the screen. I bypassed my sister's number and dialed the contact I had saved under a fake name.
“Hello, Mrs. Vance,” the gruff voice of the moving company foreman answered on the second ring.
“We are clear,” I said, my voice remarkably steady. “You can bring the trucks up the driveway now. We have exactly four hours to empty my half of the house before he boards his flight and realizes his tracking app on my phone is sitting on the kitchen counter.”
May you like
“Copy that,” the foreman replied. “We’re turning onto your street now.”
I hung up the phone. The transition from devastated wife to cold, calculating survivor was instantaneous. The tears were gone. It was time to dismantle my life.
