Chapter 3
Dad opened the passenger door.
“Get in.”
“Dad, I can handle this.”
“I know you can.”
That stopped me.
He shifted Lucas carefully in his arms.
“I know my daughter can survive almost anything. That doesn’t mean she should have to.”
My throat tightened.
“What are you going to do?”
“We’re going to the house where you’re living.”
My pulse jumped.
“If Marlene sees me arrive with you, she’s going to lose it.”
“Then she’ll lose it.”
“She might throw us out.”
“Then you won’t spend another night there.”
I looked at him.
“What if Daniel chooses them?”
Dad hesitated.
That hesitation terrified me more than reassurance would have.
“Then at least you’ll finally know.”
I got into the SUV.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Lucas slept in his car seat while I stared out the window and tried to slow my breathing.
Then I noticed the military installation access pass beneath Dad’s rearview mirror.
Daniel’s parents knew my father had served in the Army.
That was all.
Marlene once called him “some career Army officer” after asking why he could not simply send us money instead of letting us struggle.
I had never corrected her.
I had never told her the rest.
I never wanted my father’s name, rank, or achievements opening doors for me.
Growing up, he had been strict about that.
“You earn your own reputation,” he used to tell me. “Mine belongs to me. Yours belongs to you.”
So when I married Daniel, I introduced my father simply as Gabriel.
When Marlene asked what he did, I said Army.
When she asked whether he had retired, I said no.
When she rolled her eyes and said military families always acted more important than they were, I said nothing.
I had not realized my silence had convinced her of something else.
She believed I had nowhere powerful to stand.
Worse, over the last six months, she had convinced me of the same thing.
We reached the house twenty minutes later.
My SUV was parked beside the garage.
Marlene’s sedan was behind it.
Dad slowed.
Then he noticed something through my SUV’s windshield.
My spare keys were sitting in the center console.
He switched off the engine.
“Did Marlene take those keys from you?”
“No.”
Dad studied me.
“Then who gave them to her?”
My chest went cold.
There were only two sets.
Mine.
And Daniel’s.