Chapter 86
She had been planning this for a long time.
Riely had what she needed in her bag. She sort of had an idea where she was going to go.
She just had to wait until her grandpa was gone for the day.
Then…she was going to go as far away as she could.
Riely was going to give it to that cop lady, and tell her she just found it.
Then she was going to run. Maybe…California. That might be far enough. Grandfather would not find her there.
She would just get away for now. Come back when she was eighteen. When he couldn't tell her what to do. She just…she had baby sisters. Here, in Finley Creek.
She wished she could meet them at least once. Just to make sure they were okay.
They were just little girls, one of them was just a baby. They deserved to be safe from her grandpa. They just did.
Bo had dropped her off at school. Like he did every day. But Riely knew how to get away. She just had to check in for her last period—it was study hall, anyway, then slip out to the back bathroom, and then out the rear door by the gym.
Everyone just thought she was going to go swim after class. Like she used to.
There were lots of bodyguards for kids at the school. But most of them didn’t stick around after drop-off. Bo didn’t.
She did exactly as she planned. She was really good at sneaking away.
It was the only way she ever felt free. Since…before.
She had enough money to take a cab. The TSP was on the opposite side of the city from her school. So it took a while.
She needed that time to get herself ready to do this. What if they asked questions? What if she couldn’t answer the right way? Her fingers wrapped around the necklace one more time.
It gave her courage.
Her grandfather was going to kill those babies’ mother. He had already killed so many people. They were her sisters. She had to take care of them.
She couldn’t let him do it. She just couldn’t let him do it.