The evidence had seemed airtight.
Naomi had stood in their kitchen in Briar Hollow, crying. "Everett, I never touched that money." "Paige set this up. Please, just listen." "There's something you need to know—"
He never let her finish. "Get your things and go."
That was all he said. He locked her out of every account. He changed the locks that same afternoon. He watched her carry one suitcase down the driveway. Alone.
Naomi moved in with her sister for the first two months. Her sister's apartment was small, already crowded with three kids of her own. Naomi found part-time work cleaning houses across town. No one in Briar Hollow wanted to hire the woman accused of stealing from the Marsh family. Word traveled fast in a town that size.
By her third month alone, she discovered she was pregnant. Twins, the doctor told her, at eleven weeks.
She sat in her car in the clinic parking lot for almost an hour afterward. Not crying, just staring at the ultrasound printout in her hands. Two flickering heartbeats, side by side, on a strip of gray paper. She thought about calling Everett right then. She thought about a lot of things that afternoon that never happened. She didn't tell Everett. She'd tried calling him twice already, and he'd hung up both times without a word. She decided she wouldn't beg a third time.
