Chapter 11
The rental lost power just as Caleb began to fuss.
One moment, the space heater hummed beside the kitchen table. The next, the room plunged into darkness, and wind shoved snow against the windows with a dry, rattling hiss.
Grant found his phone and turned on the flashlight. Its narrow beam swept across the bassinet, the diaper caddy, and Audrey’s face.
“Is he cold?”
Audrey touched Caleb’s cheek, then his chest beneath the sleeper. “He’s warm. For now.”
Grant pulled the spare blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over the bassinet without covering Caleb’s face. The little rental seemed to shrink around them, every dark window reflecting the three of them back at themselves.
“I’ll find the extra batteries,” he said.
“They’re in the box by the door.”
He reached for it. The box held diapers, two bottles, and a tangle of charging cords—not batteries. He stared down at the jumble, jaw tightening.
“I thought I packed them.”
“Maybe they’re in the car.”
“I’ll check.”
“Grant.” Audrey kept her voice low. Caleb’s fussing had quieted, but his fingers still flexed against the blanket. “Don’t leave him alone in the dark to find batteries we may not have.”
He stopped. She saw the old reflex in him: fix the problem, keep moving, make the fear smaller by refusing to look at it. Then he set the box down and came back to the bassinet.
“You’re right.”
A hard knock struck the door.
Grant turned, putting himself between the sound and the baby. Audrey reached for her phone. The screen lit up with Tessa’s name.
“It’s me,” Tessa called through the door. “I brought blankets. Open up before I freeze to the porch.”
Grant checked through the peephole, then let her in. Tessa stamped snow from her boots and handed Audrey a thick wool blanket. She had another looped over one arm and a paper grocery bag in her other hand.
“I thought the power might go,” she said. “The weather service has been warning everyone all afternoon.”
“Thank you,” Audrey said, pulling the wool around her shoulders. The warmth smelled faintly of cedar and laundry soap.
Tessa set the bag on the counter. “There are batteries in there, too. And a thermos.”
Grant’s shoulders dropped a fraction. “You came through this storm with supplies?”
“I came because I know what it’s like to be stranded when the people with the answers are somewhere else.”
She glanced at the dark bassinet, then at Audrey. There was something more she wanted to say. Audrey felt it before Tessa spoke.
“Lenora changed the invitation.”
The room seemed to go colder despite the blanket.
“What invitation?” Grant asked.
Tessa took out her phone. “The New Year’s Eve one. She sent a revised version to the guests this afternoon.”
She passed the screen to Audrey.
The house shone beneath winter lights, the picture cropped to make the front rooms look grander than they were. Under it, in elegant script, were the words: Join Lenora and Audrey Whitmore for an evening of family, forgiveness, and new beginnings.
Audrey’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“I never agreed to this.”
“I know.” Tessa’s voice cracked on the last word. “She used your name as co-host.”
A second image sat beneath the invitation. It showed Caleb’s soft blue blanket, folded neatly across the porch bench. The crop left out the door, the changed lock, and the empty drive. It made the blanket look like a gift waiting to welcome them home.
Audrey recognized the small stitched crescent near one corner. She had rubbed it between her fingers during late-night feedings, back when the house still seemed like a place where she and Caleb belonged.
“She’s making it look like we accepted,” Audrey said.
Tessa nodded. “Some guests are already sharing it.”
Grant took the phone. His expression didn’t change much, but the light from the screen showed the color draining from his face.
“She has the blanket,” he said. “Now she’s using it to tell people we’re coming back.”
“She wants you there,” Tessa said carefully. “Both of you. If you show up, she can call it a reconciliation.”
“And if we don’t?” Audrey asked.
“She gets to say you refused to talk to her. She already told people you were being cruel.”
Audrey looked at Caleb. He had settled beneath the spare blanket, one tiny fist tucked against his chin. The blue blanket was his. But it wasn’t the thing she needed most—not tonight.
Grant stepped toward the window, phone in hand.
“I’m calling her.”
“Grant,” Audrey said, not as a warning but as a question.
He looked at her. “I won’t let her bargain with something that belongs to him.”
The call rang twice.
“You have quite a production going,” he said when Lenora answered. “Take Audrey’s name off the invitation.”
A pause. Then Lenora’s voice, thin and smooth through the speaker. “She is my daughter-in-law. It’s a family event.”
“She did not agree to host it.”
“She can tell people that herself when she comes.”
Grant’s grip tightened on the phone. “You took Caleb’s blanket. Bring it back.”
“I’ll return it when you come to the house.”
Audrey stood, the wool blanket slipping from one shoulder. “You don’t get to make him part of this.”
Lenora heard her. “Audrey, I’m trying to give everyone a chance to come together.”
“You put my name on an invitation without asking me. You took his blanket and made it an announcement.”
“I thought you’d understand how important it is to show up for family.”
The silence that followed had weight. Audrey could hear wind worrying the windows and the low, steady breath of her baby. She didn’t offer Lenora another explanation to twist into a story.
Grant ended the call.
For a moment, nobody spoke. Then Tessa shifted her weight, eyes on the invitation still glowing in Audrey’s hand.
“If you go, she’ll use the fact that you came.”
“If we stay away, she’ll use that, too,” Grant said.
Audrey set the phone facedown on the table. “We can go without agreeing to her story.”
Grant looked at her—not trying to decide for her, not waiting for her to make the choice easy.
“We go on our terms,” she said. “We tell the truth. We don’t bring Caleb into a room where she can use him to make the picture she wants.”
“Agreed,” he said.
Tessa nodded, though worry gathered between her brows. “There’s something else.”
May you like
Grant turned. “What?”
“Lenora invited a local reporter to witness the supposed family reunion.”
