Something She's Not Telling Us
Page 26
Ruth is shaking from cold and fear. It’s unpleasant, holding a broken person who has done something so awful to you and your family. Charlotte feels Ruth’s terror almost as if it were her own.
“Ruth,” Charlotte says.
By the time tonight is over, Charlotte thinks, she and Eli and Daisy will be safe and home. Rocco will spend the night with them, like before.
And what will happen to Ruth? Where did she get that SUV? Who is the woman lying, bloodied, at the base of the stairs? Will Daisy have to give a statement? Will Charlotte be called upon to testify that Ruth isn’t responsible for her actions? Ruth belongs in a hospital . . .
Rocco says, “Eli’s on his way. Along with the police.”
Soon Eli will be here.
Charlotte will wait a few days before she tells him that they have to talk about Daisy.
She’ll tell him about Andrew John.
At least part of the story. Like her, Eli will be so happy to have Daisy back that nothing else will matter.
The police will have taken Ruth away. There will be statements, a trial.
“My name is Naomi,” Ruth says. “My grandparents are dead.”
Charlotte and Ruth stand at the edge of the bank looking down at the river. Charlotte hears Daisy chattering to Rocco, but she can’t hear what she’s saying.
Night has fallen, and tiny triangles of moonlight glisten on the wave caps puckering the Hudson. A barge floating downriver honks its horn. It echoes into the velvety night, bouncing off the rising fog.
The foghorn is the fog’s voice. Charlotte listens to what it is saying.
The voice says, You are one of the lucky ones.
You are safe for now.
About the Author
DARCEY BELL is the author of the New York Times bestselling hit A Simple Favor, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. Something She’s Not Telling Us is her second novel.
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Also by Darcey Bell
A Simple Favor
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SOMETHING SHE’S NOT TELLING US. Copyright © 2020 by Seven Acres, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover photograph © Andreas Kuehn/Getty Images
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition APRIL 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-295394-0
Version 02222020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-295393-3 (pbk.)
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-295392-6 (library edition)
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