Chapter 37
37
The backpack was heavier than she expected. Covered in dirt, wrapped in thick plastic, and sealed inside a black trash bag, it sat in the passenger seat like a second presence—silent, ominous, undeniable. Dinah had brushed most of the loose soil from it before leaving the barn, but it still smelled like dust and rot and old wood.
She’d put Judah in his bed, and told him to rest for the next few hours. They were supposed to be packing, but she knew… Judah was leaving.
Dinah was going to make sure of it.
Her brother was going to escape this hell they lived in. Judah was going to have a life. All she wanted for him was for him to be safe and happy.
And then… she was going to do what she had to do. Enough was enough.
She’d told her mother she had to pick up her check at the diner before she could leave. And she had told her mother she was bringing Judah with her—that she’d drive her brother to Idaho. To give her father a break from Judah and so that she had someone to help her watch for road signs.
Dinah was going to drive Judah to the airport later tonight. He had enough money… and Dinah had an older, widowed friend from the church in Nebraska who lived in Oregon now. She’d called Joanna as soon as she could. Joanna was going to let Judah stay with her, until he found a job and got on his feet.
She’d agreed to look after Judah. She’d known him before, when they’d been children and Joanna had watched over them as a babysitter. She would take care of him for Dinah.
Dinah would send money when she could.
But for now… Value was where Dinah was going to make her life. And her father wasn’t going to stop her any longer.
She had her cell phone next to her. She was ready to call the sheriff herself if she had to. Beg for help.
Dinah was going to do whatever she had to do. She had hugged her mother and told her good-bye, to drive safely, and that Dinah loved her. She meant it—she loved her mother, but she would not ever become her.
Her mother had never been soft and loving with her children. Not once, even when they’d been small, or when Nathanial had died. Dinah… didn’t know if her mother had ever truly loved her children. Her mother had never once said it.
A few hours were going to make all the difference.
She loved her mother. But… she did not respect her. And no matter what she had to do, she wasn’t going to become her. She was not going to marry a man just because her father said she had to.
Dinah would run clear to Mexico if it meant escaping Jeremiah Holmes.
More than anything, she didn’t want this horrible kind of life.
She couldn’t live this way any longer. She just wouldn’t.
Dinah gripped the wheel tighter and turned the car toward the church at the edge of town.
She didn’t know what would happen next.
Because what her father had done—what Hezekiah and Jeremiah had helped cover up—it wasn’t just a moral sin. It was a legal one. And she had the proof now, wrapped in plastic on the seat beside her.
‘He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.’ But what about the father who did the smiting? She asked herself that as she drove. Did the Bible ever talk about the father who hurt his children?
The church lot was empty except for a single truck she recognized easily enough. He was there; just like the woman who had answered the phone at the Hiller Ranch had said he would be. Dinah parked near the edge of the gravel and killed the engine.
She climbed out, the trash bag in her hand now. It represented her… hope. Her escape.
The only real way she had to fix this.
She’d looked in that smallest book after she’d dug the bag out of the ground while Judah had been sleeping. The green one. And seen names. Prices.
Dinah knew what they meant.
And there had been… sixteen one hundred dollar bills folded inside.
She’d tucked them right back.
Blood money. That was it was.
That money would burn on her father’s soul for eternity. She was sure of it.
She didn’t notice Ayla until the other woman stepped into view from around the corner of the building, near the flowerbeds. The girl had dirt all up her hands. Dinah just looked at her. And waited.
“Hello.” Ayla looked at the bag in her hand. “What do you have there?”
She looked… incredibly young. When Dinah got up close to her, she realized… Ayla was very young. Younger than she’d realized. “How old are you?”
Not exactly a polite question, but… she needed to know. But the other woman certainly didn’t have to answer.
She tilted her head and studied Dinah, so curiously. “Twenty-three, almost twenty-four. How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven, but I feel forty-seven right now, actually. I… I’m sorry. I’m being rude, aren’t I?” Dinah pulled in a deep breath. “Is Reverend Hiller inside? I am a woman on a mission. In the midst of an epiphany, actually.”
That was Reverend Hiller’s truck right there. He’d obviously brought this girl here. Twenty-three. Almost twenty-four. Just like Judah. So young. Entire life ahead of them, and Dinah was only a few years older. So why did Dinah feel so old right now? “I need to talk to him. I’m having a real problem and… I just need to talk to him.”
“He’s inside, with Reverend Riordan. I’m sure Gunn can fix just about anything, you know. Probably really great at helping with epiphanies, too. I imagine. I had one about him myself today, you know.”
“Yes, I think he can.” Dinah paused. She didn’t feel angry at this girl any longer.
Because Dinah didn’t want Reverend Hiller.
She didn’t want a man tied to the Hope Life Church at all.
Not… right now. Maybe not ever.
She wanted to find out who Dinah Davidson was first.
Maybe… maybe she would never want to find a man to marry at all. Maybe she was going to have too much fun living for herself now, that tying herself to a man forever never happened.
Maybe she would be just fine just being free.
She looked at Ayla, for real, this time. “Take care of him, okay? He’s one of the best men I have ever known. He deserves someone to love him completely.”
Ayla grinned at her. She really was a sweet looking girl. “I plan to do that forever, you know. There are… Oreos in the cabinet, by the way. I think he hid them there for later. Orange soda in the fridge. I’m going to play with flowers for a while. I love how making things grow makes me feel.”
“I love flowers, too. I used to dream about opening a nursery somewhere. But… I probably won’t. Too busy working… ”
And… she’d have to work even harder now. Money would be tight for a long, long time. She was staying in the house her brother Judah had bought three years ago. He had bought their house. He’d told her, his name was the one on the deed. Not their father’s like she’d always thought.
It was Judah’s, and her father couldn’t do anything now to take it away. And Judah told her she could stay right there, forever, if she wanted. Or… she could pay him back for it someday. For the purchase price.
She was going to do it, too. Going to make the house her own. She’d paint it and fix it up and make it beautiful.
She’d told him that morning she was going to buy it from him someday. Then… it would be all hers. No matter what.
“I think you should go for it. What’s the worst that can happen? You fail? Fall down? Well, you just get yourself right back up again. Trust me… I do it all the time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. He’s in his office?”
“Yep. Two far too beautiful preacher men are just waiting inside.”
Ayla started to lower herself to the ground where the flower bed was waiting. Dinah reached out a hand and helped her down.
This… felt right.
Dinah was starting to feel free. She had never felt that way before.