“And if I don’t?” I said.
“Judge Marsh hears our emergency petition at nine tomorrow morning,” said Pike.
“By lunch, Ms. Rourke is the legal guardian of two infants.”
“And you,” said Ashley, almost fondly, “get to be a stepfather to your own children.”
She tightened her grip on my sleeve.
Then she turned, took a folded twenty from the Birkin, and walked the length of the porch to Emily.
Emily did not step back.
Ashley took her hand, pressed the bill into her palm, and folded Emily’s fingers over it, one by one.
“Buy yourself a meal,” Ashley said.
Her smile was so pleasant.
“You look hungry.”
For three long seconds, no one on that porch moved.
The little girl’s truck lay still.
Miss Odessa’s fork trembled.
A woman near the rail put her hand over her mouth.
The porch light buzzed, and the moths beat against it.
