Chapter 1
Maggie Watson Callahan’s fingers trembled 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 shirts had to 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. And get the hell out 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.
Down she ran, through the foyer to grab her purse, then through the kitchen, past the laundry room.
It had been such a nice little house when they got married, but it became her prison.
Sean, always insistent on the best security, had installed a video doorbell on the front door.
But the fenced-in yard was secure enough for him to skip the extra expense of adding one to the back door.
Maggie fled through that back door like a shot, not caring to lock it behind her for once.
Panting, she ran past the last bits of snow clinging to the lawn, to the fence where their property butted onto the woods. First, she hefted her suitcase over the cliché white pickets that she’d once loved. Then she pulled herself over.
Grunting as she fell on her ample ass, she decided that Sean might be right that she’d been putting on weight again. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing right this second. Now she had to get to Jessica’s house on the other side of the woods.
She’d met the other woman through one of the online support groups that her midwife set her up with.
When they realized they lived so close, Jessica became her lifeline and her escape plan.
Jessica escaped her own bad situation years before, so she knew what Maggie would need.
And she was on Alex’s list to call as part of the plan.
Dragging a wheeled suitcase through the woods was harder than Maggie had anticipated.
She couldn’t tell how much time passed before she saw the familiar porch through the trees.
Her heart still raced, as if Sean were on her trail even now, despite the fact that she doubted his boss would let him go early.
Harris always struck her as a stickler for protocol, and once Sean’s department caught wind of what else Alex was filing today, they would keep him in line. She hoped.
But Sean could just as easily have claimed something was wrong with her and left for a “family emergency.” And he’d be raging.
Stick to the plan.
Jessica waited on the back porch for her with keys clutched in one hand and a small thermal bag in the other. She met her halfway across her yard and wrapped Maggie in an embrace. “You've got this.”
Her voice trembled with tears she didn’t dare release. “Thank you so much.”
“If you can, reach out and let me know you’re safe, okay?”
“I will.” Maggie took a deep breath. She hadn’t had a best friend in so long, and now she wasn’t sure she’d ever talk to her again.
“Take these. Mom’s car is in the driveway.
The deed and registration are in the glove box.
It’s still on my insurance for the next six months.
” Maggie nodded, trying not to let Jessica’s kindness overwhelm her.
Jess followed her to the old blue sedan parked in her driveway and helped her lift the suitcase into the backseat.
She passed Maggie the lunch bag as she opened the driver’s door. “Some food for your trip.” Maggie’s heart warmed at the gesture. Hopefully, her appetite would return at some point. The two women embraced one last time. “Be safe, Maggie.”
“You, too.” While Sean didn’t know about Jessica, she didn’t know if he could track her online activity, and Maggie wouldn’t put it past her husband to retaliate against anyone who helped her.
With a wave, Maggie backed out of Jessica’s driveway and headed for the open highway.
This route led away from Sean’s precinct, and the chances of him being on it right now were slim to none.
Soon, she would be far from the city where she grew up, where she met Sean, where her mother made it clear she would never be enough. Her hometown no longer felt like home.
Two days later, she passed a sign that said, “Welcome to Pennsylvania.” Maggie was starting to feel like maybe she was far enough away from Sean.
She’d been so careful to go the speed limit, to give no reason for a cop to pull her over.
Her heart rate was starting to settle, and frankly, she was getting tired of sleeping at roadside motels.