Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Asleep.
Smiling, I walked over and knelt in front of her. “Beth?” I whispered.
She didn’t so much as twitch.
“Bethany,” I said softly, touching her shoulder.
She grunted and rolled her shoulder as if to shake me off.
“Okay.” I fetched two thick blankets from the ottoman under the window and gently tucked them around her, then got her a bottle of water from the fridge. I used the notepad on the fridge to scrawl her a quick note about her car and popped it under the water bottle.
After stoking the fire and throwing some fresh coal on it, I hesitated before leaving. I wanted to make sure she really was okay—she looked fucking knackered if the shadows under her eyes were anything to go by.
Her phone lit up on the table, and my eyes widened as it did the tell-tale jerk of a vibration.
I darted across the room and grabbed it right as that started. Instead of it buzzing across the table and waking the dead, never mind Beth, it vibrated in my hand, and I took a peek at the screen.
Zara.
I hesitated only for a second before I ducked out of the room and answered. “Hey,” I said.
“Tom?” Zara’s voice crackled with the poor signal, and I quickly moved away from the dead spot that I knew was the living room door. “Is that you?”
“Yeah, sorry, dead spot,” I replied. “Everything okay?”
“Uh, why are you answering Beth’s phone?”
“She’s asleep.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“She’s asleep on the sofa,” I said, expanding on my original answer. “Her phone was on the table, and I didn’t want it to wake her up vibrating.”
Zara was quiet for a second. “Oh. Why is she asleep on the sofa?”
That was a loaded fucking question.
“Busy day,” I answered vaguely.
“Thomas!”
“She’s slammed at the shop, and the lights were turned on tonight, so she’s had a long day.”
“Oh, man, I missed the lights?”
I snorted. “Whose fault is that, Zara? You were supposed to be here. I’m not even going to respond to the fact you’re more worried about missing the lights than your wife being so exhausted she’s passing out on the sofa.”
“Don’t start with me.” My sister huffed. “She never falls asleep on the sofa. Is she that busy?”
“Between Christmas and Hazel’s wedding, what do you think?”
“She’s been busier.”
I shook my head. “Do you want me to give her a message in the morning?”
“I want to speak to my wife.”
“I’m not going to wake her up.”
“What if it’s important?”
“Are you injured? Dying? In hospital? Trapped in a basement with a crazed serial killer demanding ransom money? If you are, I’m not paying it, by the way.”
The line crackled with her huff. “Can you just get her?”
“No, I’m not waking her up,” I snapped. “She’s exhausted. You’d know that if you cared to come home.”
“How can you say that?”
“I’m not talking to you anymore,” I said firmly. “I’m putting Beth’s phone on silent, so you won’t disturb her. She needs to sleep, and that’s the end of it.”
“Tom, wait!”
The urgency in her tone was the only reason I didn’t hang up.
“What?” I asked after a moment.
“Is she… okay?” Zara questioned softly. “She’s been distant on the phone, and you’re there, and I just…”
I closed my eyes. “Come home, Zara.”
“I have to finish this—”
“Come. Home.”
There was a thick silence that hung in the air between us, and as much as I wanted to tell her the truth about why Beth was so tired and struggling so much, I simply couldn’t.
It wasn’t my news to share.
A shuddery breath made the line sound like it was going to break at any moment, and I realised my sister was crying.
I closed my eyes. “Zara.”
“Tom, she—we…” She paused. “Danny,” she settled on after a second. “Again. We’ve tried again.”
I didn’t say anything.
What could I say? That I knew? More than she did?
“Is… Is Beth…” She trailed off.
I knew exactly what she was asking me.
So, I said the only thing I could say, repeating myself for the second time in as many minutes.
“Come home, Zara.”
***
Beth pressed her lips together. “Thank you for not telling her.”
I sighed and offered her a tight smile. “It’s not my news to share,” I said honestly. “Although I do think she’s put two and two together.”
“I agree. I was just so tired last night. I’m seven weeks now, and I guess the lights really took it out of me.” She looked into her mug of tea. “If she’s guessed, she’s guessed. It’s really not your fault.”
“I feel like it is.”
“Thomas, it’s not.” Beth smiled at me. “If I knew she’d call me again, I’d have waited up for her. Thank you for letting me sleep and for putting my car away.”
“It was the least I could do. And don’t worry about getting out—the groundskeepers have already been by and cleared the driveway.”
She nodded her thanks. “Did she… say when she was coming home?”