Chapter 14 - Brinley Speaks
Belle did not remember getting into the delivery truck.
She remembered Eli breaking the driver’s window with his elbow. She remembered Maribel protesting weakly from the passenger seat. She remembered sitting on the floor in the back because there were only two seats, the hard drive pressed against her ribs, her phone clutched so tightly her fingers cramped.
She remembered Micah breathing.
That was all.
“Stay hidden,” she told him. “Don’t move. Don’t speak unless you have to.”
“We’re behind the piano wall,” Micah whispered. “There’s dust.”
“You’re doing good.”
“Brinley knows the house like a mouse.”
Belle heard a tiny offended whisper.
“Not mouse.”
Micah corrected himself. “Like a sparrow.”
Another whisper.
“Better.”
Belle almost cried.
“Is Nora with you?”
“No. She made us run when the glass broke.”
Eli drove like the city owed him space. Horns blared. Rain streaked across the windshield. Maribel prayed in Spanish under her breath.
“Where is Renick?” Belle asked Eli.
“Don’t know.”
“Call him.”
“No answer.”
Belle pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead.
No.
No time to imagine blood. No time to imagine him on the clinic floor. No time to feel anything for a man whose world had swallowed hers whole.
Micah whispered, “Mom?”
“I’m here.”
“Brinley wants to tell.”
Belle sat up.
“Tell what?”
Silence.
Then Brinley’s voice came through, small as a thread.
“Blue lady said Daddy made Mommy go boom.”
Belle’s heart stopped.
Eli’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.
Maribel stopped praying.
Belle forced air into her lungs. “Brinley, sweetheart, what do you mean?”
A rustle. Micah murmured something gentle.
Brinley spoke again.
“Blue lady said if I tell, Daddy goes away. If Daddy goes away, no birds. No Mommy house. No Bird Boy.”
Belle closed her eyes.
Vivienne had not only tried to kill the child.
She had been feeding her poison in little sentences.
“Listen to me,” Belle said softly. “Your daddy did not send me away. He brought us to your mommy’s house to keep us safe.”
Brinley was quiet.
Then she whispered, “Daddy cries in the dark room.”
Belle’s throat tightened.
Micah said, “My mom cries in the bathroom so I don’t hear.”
“Micah,” Belle whispered.
“What? You do.”
Brinley said, “Grown-ups are bad at quiet.”
Despite the terror, Belle let out one broken laugh.
Then a loud bang cracked through the phone.
Micah sucked in a breath.
“Someone’s in the room.”
Belle froze.
“Stay quiet.”
Footsteps sounded through the phone, muffled but close. A woman’s voice drifted in.
“Brinley. Come out, darling.”
Vivienne.
Belle’s blood turned sharp.
The voice moved closer. “Your father is hurt. He asked for you.”
Brinley made a tiny sound.
Micah whispered, “Don’t.”
Vivienne continued, honey-sweet.
“And bring the boy. He must be frightened. Poor little thing. Basement children always frighten easily.”
Belle’s skin crawled.
Micah’s breathing changed.
Belle knew that change. He was scared, yes—but also angry.
“Micah,” Belle whispered. “Do not answer her.”
Vivienne’s heels clicked across the floor.
“How funny,” she said. “Aisling used to hide here too.”
A pause.
Then a scraping sound.
She knew.
“She’s opening it,” Micah breathed.
Belle screamed into the phone, “Run!”
The line exploded into movement.
Wood cracked. Brinley cried out. Micah shouted, “This way!”
Then the call dropped.
Belle lunged toward the front of the truck. “Faster!”
Eli’s face was stone. “Hold on.”
The delivery truck hit the curb outside Aisling’s townhouse hard enough to throw Belle against the metal wall.
She scrambled out before it fully stopped.
The front door hung open.
Glass covered the entry.
Nora lay bleeding near the stairs, alive but dazed.
Belle ran past her.
“Micah!”
From somewhere above, a child screamed.
Belle took the stairs two at a time.
In the second-floor hall, Vivienne Kavanaugh stood outside the piano room in a dark blue coat and matching gloves.
One hand gripped Brinley’s arm.
The other held Micah by the collar.
Both children were fighting.
Vivienne looked at Belle and smiled.
“There you are,” she said. “The maid who taught a child to meddle.”
May you like
Belle did not slow down.
She hit Vivienne with everything motherhood had made of her.
