Chapter 2 #3
The vet was unaware that all of this was happening because of a child’s warning to a friend.
The only adult worried about the results was Doctor Joe, who’d erred on the side of caution by believing the boy and considered the risk was in the public’s well-being.
But by the morning of the next day, Doctor Joe was both shocked that the child had been right and relieved he had not made a foolish call.
What might have ended with terrible results for the townspeople had been stopped before anyone in Star Ridge was harmed.
The news triggered locals to rush their pets to the local vet for updated shots.
* * *
Abel was at the garage changing oil in a customer’s car when a pale-green Chrysler rolled up at the pumps.
He paid no attention to the driver who got out until he heard footsteps behind him and turned.
His eyes narrowed, surprised that the yellow-haired, skinny-necked weasel with a clerical collar walking his way had the gall to face him.
As the man approached, Abel came out from beneath the lift, still clutching the wrench in his hand.
“Abel Bandy. We have been missing you and your family at Sunday service.”
“Morning, Pastor Wells. Is there something you need?”
Wells frowned. “Just a little fuel.”
“Then I’ll let you get on with it,” Abel said.
Wells had come to reclaim a parishioner and shifted the timbre of his voice into sermon mode. “The Good Lord’s word heals our souls!”
That’s when Abel lost it. “Interesting…because the words that came out of your mouth about me and my family didn’t heal shit.
You turned them into some wild-ass version of a bad B movie…
insinuating evil about my wife and son. Your words nearly got her killed and led one woman on the path of crime and injustice.
Your words are a slur against humanity. Every God-given gift my son has came through MY bloodline.
Not my wife’s consort with some so-called devil.
You’re who’s evil, hiding behind a lie and a Bible you do not deserve to hold.
Tate is the sixth generation in my family to be born with the knowing. ”
The shock on Wells’s face had gone from angry red to stark white. “How dare—”
Abel lowered his voice to a whisper. “No, you little bastard, how dare you? We don’t claim to see spirits.
We don’t claim to communicate with angels.
Nobody’s out in the woods stirring up some damn potion.
‘The knowing’ is a vision. Nothing more.
Nothing less. They can’t call it up. It comes to them.
My wife is the dearest woman on earth. She is a good and loving wife and mother.
And you nearly got her killed. If I find out that you have even uttered our names again, or you run crying to your congregation about this conversation we’ve just had, you’re the one who will be praying for mercy.
Now go get your damn gas and get out of my face. ”
At a complete loss for how to respond, Wells pivoted and strode back to the pumps in short, jerky strides.
Abel waited until he was gone, then went back to work as if nothing had happened.
No one knew what happened. No one even witnessed their conversation. But within a month, Pastor Wells had put in a request to be transferred, and then he was gone. A new pastor was assigned to that location and stepped up to oversee the rebuilding of what the tornado had destroyed.
* * *
Plagued by headaches and some mild confusion with her memory, Lilith healed slowly and made weekly visits back to Doctor Joe until he was satisfied that all danger had passed.
During that time, Mariah was arraigned and bonded out of jail. A date for her hearing was set, but her release day was cloaked with shame. When she realized Briar had come with Roger to pick her up, she all but hissed her displeasure when she saw her sitting in the car.
“Why did you bring her?” Mariah asked.
“What would you have had me do? Walk off and leave her alone in the house like you left her at the park? She’s our child to care for.”
“Well, where has she been while you were at work?” Mariah asked.
He glared. “I haven’t gone back to work yet. Thanks to you, Briar and I are being judged by your actions. I expect you to apologize to her and mean it. She already knows you wish she’d been born a boy, so you’ve lost all the shine she once had for you as her mother.”
Mariah paled. “What do you mean? I never—”
“Stuff the lie. She heard you talking about her on the phone weeks ago. Get in the car, and if I find out you say one negative thing to her about telling the truth of what you did, I will divorce you. You have shown a side of yourself that I never knew existed. Having to choose between the two of you, I will choose Briar every time.” Then he slid his hand beneath her elbow, gripping it warningly as he walked her to their car.
Mariah was horrified Briar overheard the careless remark. She wanted to be mad, but she didn’t want to be without her husband and the lifestyle he afforded them, and she did care about her daughter. The problem with Mariah was that she cared more for herself.
When Roger opened the car door, Mariah got in and sat down. Before she could buckle up, Briar leaned over the console.
“Welcome home, Mama,” she said, and handed her a rose, picked from their own garden. “Daddy helped me get off all the stickers.”
Mariah’s eyes welled. “Thank you, darling. I’m so sorry for running away. I was just scared and didn’t think.”
“It’s okay,” Briar said. “I know the way to our house. When school starts again, I’ll be in second grade, and I’ll take myself home.”
Mariah didn’t recognize it, but it was Briar’s first sign of initiating independence.
Mariah laid the rose in her lap and buckled up as Roger got in.
He gave her a warning look she wasn’t likely to forget.
She lifted her chin as they drove away. The good news was that she was out of jail.
The unknown was what was going to happen next.
* * *
Tate Bandy accompanied his mother on her first trip to the grocery store after her release from the hospital. The stitches in her head were long gone, as was the intermittent confusion she’d suffered her first week home. Physically, she was back to normal. Emotionally, she would never be the same.
The town’s residents had taken sides. Some didn’t blame Mariah Lowe.
Others empathized with Lilith Bandy. But none of them offered a handshake or a hug.
It soon became evident that the best she could hope for was to be left alone.
Her heart hurt. Her faith in the people here was forever shattered.
It felt like she was the one who’d been imprisoned in a town that didn’t want them.
In the quiet hours of Abel and Lilith’s bedroom, after they put their son to bed, Lilith was lying in her husband’s arms, trying to find the right way to tell him what was in her heart.
Abel already knew she was bothered, but he’d been waiting for her to tell him why. When she turned to him, he pulled her close.
“Are you okay, love?” he asked.
“I have a request.”
His heart skipped. “All you have to do is ask and it’s done.”
“When Tate graduates from high school, I don’t know where he’ll go, or what he will grow up wanting to be. That will be for him to decide. But I want to go home…back to the Tennessee hills and our families. Where we won’t be judged or shunned.”
Abel pulled her even closer. “I will take you tomorrow, if that’s what you need.”
Lilith sighed. “I don’t know how to explain this, but I feel like separating Tate from Briar would be his greatest tragedy.
I know he’s still a little boy, but their bond is so strong, and he shows us daily how invested he is in making sure she’s safe.
I don’t know what all that child already knows, but I don’t want to be the one responsible for changing his life path. ”
“That’s quite a sacrifice you will be making. Eleven more years here,” he said.
“Making Tate happy is not a sacrifice. It is my joy,” she said.
“Then consider yourself on hold until that day comes. After that, we’re gone.”
Lilith sighed again, but this time with relief. Now that she had an exit strategy, putting up with this place was going to be easier.
* * *
Just over a month after Mariah was released from jail, she was back in the same courtroom where her arraignment had been held, with her lawyer at her side.
As panicked as she’d been to agree to it, pleading guilty and hoping for a lenient sentence for a first offense seemed wiser than having her own daughter, two of her best friends, and Lilith Bandy testifying against her before a jury of her peers.
But the moment they entered and she saw every possible seat in the courtroom had been taken with residents of Star Ridge, she moaned. Her humiliation was not over yet. She’d already pled guilty to the charges against her. Today she would learn her sentence.
The only person in the entire room who was on her side was Roger.
He was sitting on the bench directly behind her and Rocky.
She looked at him as they passed, and the look of shame and disgust on his face was evident.
She’d damaged his name and reputation, and if the judge did sentence her to prison, she knew he would not weep for her absence.