She Thought She Was Safe

Chapter 1

RAIN SPATTERS THE WINDSHIELD, SO I TURN ON THE WIPERS, WISHING every problem could be solved so easily.

My palms are sweaty on the steering wheel.

It’s that strange time of year, summer barely over and the chill of fall seeping in like a stealthy intruder.

But my little car heated up quickly, and I pull at the neck of my sweater, thinking I dressed too warmly for mid-September.

I concentrate on my breathing, leaning on my yoga training, trying to settle, but anxiety fills my chest like a nasty weed that refuses to be eradicated.

I guess it’s in my DNA. Growing up with my single mom, living day to day with her nervous energy that had no known source, at least not to me.

We moved city to city, town to town in my mother’s desperate search for peace.

It seemed to elude her all the way up to her death two months ago.

And now I’m here, running to a new city myself with my few possessions tucked into her battered old suitcases.

It’s almost laughable how my life has started to mirror hers.

At this point, I’d hoped to have found a sense of calm and purpose, and I thought I had these last ten years.

I was married to my college sweetheart, working my dream job at the city library, even eking out a little time to work on my writing, hoping someday to become a published author.

I was content and fulfilled, until I showed up at Ben’s office that day last spring, planning to take him to lunch for his birthday, but instead found him with his office manager, in flagrante as the saying goes.

My mother always said you couldn’t trust anyone. I don’t know where her paranoia came from. Maybe from her parents throwing her out at eighteen when she got pregnant with me, but I’ll never know. Her past was a closed book. And now she’s gone.

My divorce proceedings are over, but apparently Ben borrowed money to pay off debts he’d accrued from sports betting, something else I had been oblivious to.

Now his financial troubles are my problem as well as his for some reason.

I had no idea what he had been up to online, or that he’d borrowed money from unscrupulous people, and now they want to be paid.

There have been strange men trying to contact me even though I had nothing to do with it, and I need to get away. Anywhere.

But I do have a destination. Boston. I was grasping at straws after my mother died, wondering where I should go to escape my ex-husband and his messy life. I needed a fresh start, so when the invitation came, I made the decision to leave my job, my friends, and my life here in Albany.

My phone rings in the cupholder. Unknown caller.

I shudder. It can’t be the same man who called yesterday.

I blocked that number. But maybe he’s using a different phone.

The man yesterday said that he knows I made money from the sale of my mother’s little house, all the money I have to my name.

It didn’t seem to matter to him that I was no longer married to Ben.

I hit the decline button and wipe a tear from my cheek, concentrating on the stormy road ahead.