Chapter 7 - Ruth Came Back
Ruth Cole stood in the kitchen holding a red emergency lantern.
She was sixty-eight, soaked to the skin, and very much alive.
Ethan hadn't seen her in nine years.
"How did you know we were here?" he asked.
Ruth looked past him and saw Claire.
The lantern slipped from her hand.
"Oh, God."
Claire didn't move toward her.
"You got Rachel's package."
Ruth started crying.
"Claire, listen to me."
"Did you get it?"
"Yes."
Lily stepped between them.
"My mother died three days later. What did she send you?"
Ruth covered her mouth.
The floodwater inside the kitchen had reached their shoes.
"A tape," she said. "And copies of contracts."
"Where are they?"
"I hid them."
Ethan's voice turned cold.
"For twenty-two years?"
Ruth looked at him.
"Your father threatened you. He threatened Claire. He threatened me. I thought silence was the only thing keeping you alive."
Claire laughed bitterly.
"It kept him alive too."
Ruth flinched.
Lily wanted to scream, but a rescue horn sounded outside.
They had minutes.
"Where is the tape?" Lily asked.
Ruth pointed upstairs.
"In the old sewing room. Inside the wall vent."
Ethan stared at her.
"You came here during a flood to get it."
Ruth nodded.
"Because Thomas called me this morning."
Everyone went silent.
"He said if I didn't bring him Rachel's tape, he'd take Mia and disappear."
Claire pulled Mia close.
"He knew about her?"
"For months."
A window shattered in the front room.
Thomas stepped through the broken frame with a pry bar in one hand.
"Enough family therapy," he said.
May you like
Then he looked at Ruth.
"Give me the tape."
