LITMIR.BIZ

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was perfect, her sedate herringbone pencil skirt and matching fitted jacket were high quality, her shoes and bag worth more than most people made in a week. She looked exactly like what she was. A rich man’s wife.

      Just what she’d always wanted to be.

      She washed her hands, then snatched a few paper towels from the dispenser and soaked them in cold water. Pressed them to her face, careful not to smudge her makeup. Miles wouldn’t like that. Especially today.

      He’d told everyone justice would prevail, that he’d be found innocent of the horrific charges leveled against him.

      He’d been right and wrong. Because justice hadn’t prevailed. The jury hadn’t believed Miles had sexually abused that boy. They’d bought the defense’s claim that these allegations were a last-ditch effort on the boy’s mother’s part to extort money from Miles. To the jury, to everyone in their circle, Miles was a saint who’d been railroaded by the system and a confused young boy. They saw him as the victim.

      But Lynne knew the truth.

      She tossed the paper towels into the garbage, then cupped her hands under the running water and brought them to her mouth, rinsing out the acrid taste. She’d had such high hopes that Miles would be punished, that he’d be sent to prison, and she and Jon would finally be able to escape him. Her control shattering, she slid to the dirty floor.

      Now they’d never be free.

      CHAPTER ONE

      FAITH LEWIS LOVED HER SON more than life itself. But honestly, if he whined at her one more time, she was going to duct tape his mouth shut.

      “Why can’t I stay home by myself?” Austin asked sullenly from the passenger seat. “I’m not a baby.”

      Then why are you acting like one? And worse, why had she reverted to thinking like a nine-year-old herself? She bit her tongue and strangled the steering wheel. If she’d learned one thing over the past twelve years, it was self-restraint.

      Thank God she’d learned something, right?

      She pulled into the municipal parking lot half a block down from Brit’s Snips and shut off her car.

      “It’s not fair,” he continued, crossing his arms, his green eyes shooting daggers at her. “I’m almost ten—”

      “Last time I checked,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt, “your birthday was eight months away.”

      He flipped back his brown hair. If he’d let her give him a trim, he wouldn’t have to keep jerking his head like that.

      “But why do I have to come to work with you?”

      She pushed her sunglasses back on her head. “We’ve talked about this before. So many times I might as well put it on a recording and push Play the next time you start in on me.” And he would. Her son was nothing if not stubborn.

      Like the color of his eyes, he got stubbornness from her. But that didn’t make it any less frustrating. They’d had this conversation every day since school let out two weeks ago. It was going to be a very long summer.

      “It’s not like I’m gonna start the house on fire or something. Why can’t I stay by myself?”

      “For all the reasons I’ve already explained.” Plus a few she’d kept to herself, such as her fear of coming home only to discover him gone. Tossing the keys in her purse, she opened the car door. “Now, I’m already late for work and you are about one more word away from losing your video-game privileges. Do you understand me?”

      Scowling, Austin sank farther down into his seat. “Yeah,” he muttered.

      She raised an eyebrow—yes, just like her own mother used to do when Faith was little. This day kept getting worse. “Excuse me?”

      “I mean, yes, ma’am.”

      Unlike her mother—who would’ve boxed her ears—Faith ignored the way he rolled his eyes. Hey, she didn’t expect him to like having to toe the line. She’d done plenty of things in her life because she’d had to and not because she wanted to.

      She stepped out into the bright sunshine, her lightweight shirt clinging to her skin. But that had more to do with her frantic morning than the unusual June heat wave, in the mid-eighties for three days straight.

      Heat wave. If the people of Kingsville, Maine, thought this was hot, they should try spending a summer in a cramped trailer with no air-conditioning down in South Carolina.

      It’d melt their Yankee brains.

      “Run down to Reynolds’ Mart,” she said, handing Austin a ten dollar bill, “and buy yourself something for breakfast.”

      “Okay,” he said eagerly.

      “Don’t even think of buying any boxed pastries, doughnuts and/or muffins. And avoid anything frosted, sprinkled with extra sugar, fried or carbonated.”

      His face fell. “What am I supposed to eat then?”

      “How about some yogurt? And some fruit?”

      Austin made a gagging noise. “Yogurt is gross. It’s like eating cold snot.”

      Faith grimaced and slid her purse onto her shoulder. “Thank you for that visual.”

      “What if I got a breakfast sandwich? It’s all healthy and stuff.”

      Sure it was. Eggs, cheese and sausage on a buttermilk biscuit. Her arteries hardened just thinking about it.

      But the past had not only taught her self-restraint, it’d also taught her which battles were worth fighting. And wheeling and dealing with her son in the middle of downtown Kingsville wasn’t one of them. Not when she was already two hours late for work.

      “You can get the breakfast sandwich as long as you get some milk to go with it and a piece of fruit.”

      “You take the fun out of everything.”

      “Well, it is my sworn duty as your mother to make your life as miserable as possible. So glad to hear I’m doing a good job.”

      He rolled his eyes again but his lips quirked as he walked away.

      She watched him as he went to the corner, looked both ways and crossed the street. A man in a dark business suit, his cell phone to his ear, approached Austin from the other direction. Faith clutched the strap of her purse. Austin, keeping his head down like she’d taught him, moved to the inside of the sidewalk and picked up his pace.

      The man didn’t give him a second glance. Exhaling, Faith put her sunglasses back on and walked off in the opposite direction. But she couldn’t stop herself from glancing over her shoulder and checking on Austin.

      Twice.

      He needed to do things on his own, as much as feasibly possible, anyway. The store was only two blocks away. Austin was smart, responsible and more careful than a nine-year-old should ever have to be. And she’d chosen this coastal town as the place for their new lives because of the small town’s quaintness and charm.

      But mostly she’d chosen it because it was safe—and hopefully the last place anyone would think to look for them.

      And yet she still wouldn’t take a full breath until her son was back in her sight.

      Fighting her natural instinct to keep to herself, Faith nodded and greeted people she passed as she hurried toward the salon. She knew how to play the game. All she had to do was be friendly. Normal. Act her part so the people in town wouldn’t wonder. Wonder where she and Austin came from. Why they’d moved here four months ago.

      Who they were.

      Faith pushed open the door to Brit’s Snips and stepped inside the air-conditioned building. The salon’s owner, Britney Coletti, was at the back lowering a dryer over the tin-foiled head of a client. Removing her sunglasses, Faith’s jaw dropped at the sight

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