Chapter 21
Sam
I went after Natalie.
“Wait!” But she kept going, straight out the front door.
“Natalie!”
This time she stopped and turned around. She had an expression on her face I hadn’t seen before.
“Don’t go,” I said. “Please.”
I thought I saw something softening in her face.
“I… freaked… when I thought Ethan was gone and then this morning, when I couldn’t find him… all I could think of was you, I knew you’d find him.”
She crossed her arms but didn’t say anything.
“I… don’t want you to leave,” I said. “Stay.”
“I don’t know,” she said, looking away. “I think a break might be a good idea. Things haven’t been… great, have they?”
She was right. But I didn’t want her to go.
A car drove up to the house and both of us turned to watch it. Dana got out of the car. She saw us standing outside and looked at Natalie, frowning.
“Are you still here?” the contempt in her voice was unmistakable.
Instead of recoiling from Dana, Natalie lifted her head.
“You know what I realized this morning?” She turned her gaze from Dana to me. “The school didn’t have my number. It only had your number, Sam, as the parent. They would have sent the message of the staff meeting and the school’s early closing to you. Not to me.”
“I didn’t get any message,” I said.
Natalie went on. “The school said they asked parents to reply to the message and they had noted that you had replied. If you didn’t get the message, who did? Who else has access to your phone?”
I stared at Dana. “You.”
“What?” she reacted sharply.
“You have access to my phone; I’ve seen you read my messages.”
“I… never send messages.”
“So, who saw the school message? Who responded on my behalf?”
“You must have forgotten about it,” Dana said, trying to defend herself. But it was too late. She’d been caught out.
“I didn’t mean… I mean…” she looked from Natalie to me, her eyes blinking fast. “I thought I’d told you, I wanted to, but then we got really busy at work, and it must have slipped my mind.” She smiled nervously.
Natalie shook her head and gave a little chuckle. “When I came back from the school and found you at home with Ethan, you couldn’t wait to rub my face in how angry Sam was and how I’d finally be kicked out. You were delighted. This was you finally getting rid of me.”
I couldn’t believe it, she’d set Natalie up, trying to make her look bad in the worst possible way, but endangering my son in the process. It was unforgivable. I felt a dark rage push up in me and I balled my fists as I tried to control myself from walking over to her and strangling Dana on the spot.
“How could you?!” I spluttered with rage. “Ethan could’ve gotten hurt!”
“I would never let anything happened to Ethan!” Dana said quickly. “He was never in any danger. I was always going to fetch him!”