The Liar's Child by Carla Buckley

Author:Carla Buckley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

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Holly drove like an old lady, both hands on the wheel, slowing before lights turned red, looking both ways before creeping across an intersection. She had a clot of air fresheners dangling from the rearview mirror and long acrylic fingernails, deep pink striped with silver that sparkled every time she turned the wheel. “The hotel’s been crazy all morning. Boarding up the windows, bringing everything inside. Guests are pissed about having to check out early.”

Cassie and her dad had fought about Holly driving her home. Her dad said Cassie wasn’t getting back into Lexi’s car; she wasn’t grabbing an Uber, either. He was going to drive her, goddammit, even if he got fired, and she was going to stay put. Was she a toddler that needed watching every single second? Where was her brother; had she even thought about his welfare? She was turning out just like her mother.

Into that shocked, breathless gap, Holly had unexpectedly stepped forward. I can take her home, Whit. The way she said it, her cheeks glazing pink. Cassie had given her a nasty look, but here she was sitting in the passenger seat as the streets rolled past.

“Hard to believe a hurricane’s coming.”

Cassie shrugged. Her phone buzzed with another text. This time, it was Danny. What an asshole. He meant her dad. She turned off her phone, dropped it into her bag.

Holly glanced at the long line of vehicles on the other side of the highway. “Your dad says you’re not evacuating.”

“We never do.”

“Really? I’m from Baltimore. We don’t get hurricanes up there.”

“We do down here.” People who evacuated were sorry when they came back and found their homes broken into, and their houses flooded. It had happened to her third-grade teacher.

“My folks are really freaking out. They want me to come home.”

“So, are you?” Cassie pulled forward a length of her hair and began tightly braiding it. Sometimes, she’d make hundreds of tiny braids, and when she undid them, her hair would ripple out in a fan. It never lasted, though. She didn’t have her mom’s curly hair.

Cassie, when I found out I was pregnant with you, I ran all the way to where your dad worked to tell him the news. I forgot my shoes. I forgot my purse. I even forgot to put on my bathrobe. I ran the whole way in my nightgown. Good thing it was only two blocks.

“I don’t know. They’re saying it’s going to be Category Three.”

You can’t talk to Robin, her dad had told her. He’d put his hands on Cassie’s shoulders, crouched to look her straight in the eye. You can’t tell anyone anything. If you need to talk, you come to me. Cassie’s chest had ached from holding her breath. The apartment had hummed and flickered with light. Talk to him? She couldn’t even look at him.

Honey, can you light the grill? her mom would call. Her dad would chase her mom around the kitchen with the tongs. She would giggle as he tried to kiss her.

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