Chapter 20
They had to act quickly. Their first mode of operation was to get Shelby and the kids to Vivian’s place, where they would get into Vivian’s car and head out to the vacation place in the town over.
Rebecca wanted to get them as far away from where Jared could find them as soon as possible.
Chad decided to go with them to help out with the kids, as he’d already bonded with them, proving himself a perfect future dad.
This left Rebecca and Lily to go into the main house, fetch things like Shelby’s purse, all her and the kids’ forms of identification, a few clothes, and some toys for the kids. Shelby gave them the key, but she said she always left the back door unlocked.
Rebecca and Lily hurried to the main house, mentally and physically preparing for an altercation with Jared.
Shelby had told them that he wouldn’t be back from work for a long time, but they knew they couldn’t trust him.
Rebecca felt that he could sense they were there, that something would trigger him and pull him back home before they were out.
He was almost supernatural to her in that way.
Entering Shelby’s home was bizarrely heartbreaking.
It was clear from the get-go that Jared had whittled Shelby’s sense of self down so much that there was barely any sign of her in the house.
All of the decorations spoke of Jared. All the photographs on the walls were of Jared and the kids, with no Shelby.
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears, and Lily was in disbelief.
“We don’t have time to waste,” Rebecca reminded them both.
It wasn’t practical to take a suitcase, so they shoved everything they needed into the backpacks Shelby had told them about, which she kept in the upstairs hallway closet.
They added IDs, clothes, some toys, and a few personal belongings of Shelby’s that Lily recognized from Shelby’s previous life—a photo album from high school, and a few diaries and journals.
One of them, Rebecca saw, had been taped back together, as though someone had destroyed it.
She didn’t have to work hard to imagine how that had happened.
They also made sure to grab three car seats for the kids, as they had the drive to the airport to consider. Vivian had promised to drive them slowly back to the rental house, but it was risky—and against the law. They couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.
All told, Rebecca and Lily were in that house for no longer than twenty minutes.
It felt like so much longer. Throughout, Rebecca felt the curse of what her daughter had endured.
“She can’t come back here,” she said to Lily as they scrambled through the back door, back toward the stream and toward Vivian’s house. “I won’t let her.”
Lily looked stricken. Together, they hurried back through the stream, splashing frantically.
Once there, they put back on their shoes, then walked through the forest, back toward the SUV.
All the while, Rebecca thought Jared would appear through the trees, chasing them.
She wasn’t sure what he was capable of. Out here in the Wild West, maybe he even had a gun.
When Lily and Rebecca were in the SUV, Rebecca tried to breathe but found it difficult. She was on the verge of a panic attack. She knew. She and Lily swapped seats, with Lily in the driver’s seat and Rebecca in the passenger seat.
“It’s going to be okay, Mom,” Lily told her. “We’ve got her. She’s going to be all right.”
Back at the rental house, they found a scene that seemed almost normal. The kids were playing on the carpet, laughing along with Uncle Chad, and Shelby was upstairs in one of the bedrooms, resting.
“She got sick when we arrived,” Vivian explained under her breath. “The stress and the heat, it’s all getting to her. I think you should book a flight immediately, just in case she changes her mind.”
Rebecca recognized the panic in Vivian’s eyes. Immediately, she got on her phone and booked flights for all of them: for herself, Lily, Chad, the three kids, and Shelby. The flight from Bozeman Airport left that night, and they had a forty-five-minute drive ahead of them. Vivian told them to go.
Rebecca would write the owner of the rental house tomorrow, from the safety of Nantucket, explaining that they’d had to leave early, that it couldn’t be helped.
When Rebecca and Lily peeked their head into Shelby’s room, Shelby bolted upright, as though she’d been in the middle of a nightmare. Her hair was in wild curls around her head.
“Hey, honey. We booked a flight,” Rebecca said. “We’re going to head out soon.”
Shelby looked dazed. “Did Jared call?”
“No, honey,” Rebecca said. But she gave Lily a panicked look.
Lily nodded. She knew what Rebecca understood they had to take Shelby’s phone away. Maybe they had to put it on Airplane Mode or leave it here.
“He could have a tracker on her phone,” Lily said as they walked back downstairs.
Rebecca shuddered.
It didn’t take much convincing to make Shelby leave her phone behind. They wiped it clean and left it on the kitchen counter for the owner of the house to find.
“I feel so free without my phone,” Shelby said softly as she buckled the kids into their car seats and kissed them gently on the forehead. “Maybe I won’t get a new one for a while.”
“That sounds amazing,” Lily said, smiling. “I want to do a digital detox, too.”
“We should do it together!” Shelby declared.
Chad got into the driver’s seat and glanced back, making sure everyone was buckled in and ready. Rebecca was reminded of why they’d opted for the SUV. They’d known they might have to transport more people than they’d come with. But she couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
On the long road to the airport, Shelby gazed out the window as though saying goodbye to this dramatic landscape.
For nearly six years, this had been her home.
Rebecca remembered how much her heart had ached when she’d decided to leave Maine.
But that had been different. She hadn’t been running away from anything in Maine.
She’d been running toward Nantucket, where her family awaited her.
“Mom?” Shelby began, her voice thin.
“What is it, honey?” Rebecca asked. Goodness, it was wonderful to hear Shelby call her that again.
“Will you cook something when we get home?” Shelby asked.
Rebecca’s heart swelled. “I’ll cook whatever you like, honey,” she said.
Because it occurred to her, now, that over the past six years, Shelby had had to do all the cooking. She’d had to care continually for her family. Nobody had been looking out for her.