Keys To Betrayal by Lee Harding

Author:Lee Harding [Harding, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

18 Years Ago

Hot wax trickled down the candle to drip onto the bedside cabinet. It hardened to form a ridge. The flame cast flickering shadows around the room. They lurched and jumped from one wall to the next, driven by the welcome breeze through the open window.

Summer had arrived in all its humid stickiness. The forecast warned of further electrical storms and the stores were bare. Bread, milk, torches and batteries could not be found throughout the city. All electrical items were made redundant, bowing to the awesome might of Mother Nature.

Mother.

Had it really been three days? As Dee shifted as quietly as she could, the sharp twinge from her stitches slapped her awake. She bit on her lip to hold it in. Tiny rasps echoed from the cot beside her. She exhaled slowly.

Time was a blur. The clock on the wall might have read twelve midnight or twelve noon. All she knew was those tiny rasps would soon rise to a wail sounding feeding time. The two dairy ducts weighing on her chest were leaking through her top. She pushed the pads securely flinching as they brushed the cuts on her nipples.

If the pain wasn’t so intolerable she would have laughed. She’d never thought it possible that she would become a milking machine. Lactose on demand. One mishandled squeeze and she could hit a target five feet away. She giggled. The stitches reminded her to keep still.

From the next room she could hear her husband’s heavy snores. He had taken refuge on Andrew’s floor and fallen asleep once his head touched the floor. To say the day had exhausted him was an understatement.

Chicago had been brought to its knees by the power outages but Nathan ensured they arrived home safely. When they walked into the apartment block and found the elevators broken she had cried like the baby in her arms. Not Nathan. He excelled in a crisis. Dee supposed it stemmed from providing constant care to his mother since he was a child. He was able to take control, read the situation, then plan the best course of action.

The apartment manager was contacted and within ten minutes Dee was surrounded by a group of strong strangers with an emergency stair lift.

“Don’t worry,” Nathan whispered into her ear, “I’ve told them to be careful.”

Dee wanted the floor to swallow her. Instead she shuffled onto the seat and prepared for her journey of ten flights of stairs. As the men took turns pulling her up, Nathan attempted to carry their new-born son in his car seat and also her holdall and purse.

She thought her groin was going to burst. She tried to cover her chest to hide the damp white circles there. The air conditioning was shut down and sweat seeped from her pores. It wasn’t how she imagined her first day home with her child.

Little Andrew was awake and loving life. With the elevators down all the residents had to use the stairwells. He was cooed over by dozens of women and men alike.

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