Chapter 217
Haynes gave her a bewildered look. “You should make sure you won’t suddenly have something come up and bail at the last minute.”
Stella gave a small, sarcastic smile, though her eyes were cold as ice. “What if, Mr. O’Brien, it’s you who decides to flake out instead?”
With Keen’s recent accident and Haynes‘ constant suspicions and accusations, Stella had reached the end of her rope. She was done dealing with this bizarre family. Today it was calling the cops on her own mom for kidnapping: who knows what drama tomorrow would bring?
Even though she and Haynes had been married for five years, she realized she barely knew Deanna. In the past, she’d always followed Deanna’s lead, knowing full well she was hard to please and just gritting her teeth through it. Maybe her patience kept Deanna civil, at least on the surface
But after their last blowout, Stella was shocked at how peculiar Deanna could be. It was like running a gauntlet, and she was ready to escape it as soon as possible. She was already looking forward to Rachel stepping into her shoes with Haynes.
His voice was as cool and distant as a mountain stream under the moonlight. “What time?”
was agreeing! “Tomorrow morning at ten, outside the courthouse. That work for
Stella blinked, snapping back to the moment. Haynes was a you, Mr. O’Brien?”
His voice was low and chilly. “Fine” He didn’t believe for a second that Stella would actually go through with the divorce.
Rachel and Jasper walked into the hospital together. After hearing that Keen had been found, they came to see him. As Keen’s favorite person, Rachel couldn’t possibly stay away when he was in trouble.
But when they arrived at the hospital room, Rachel saw that Keen was all alone. She scanned the room, puzzled. “Keen, where’s your dad? Isn’t he here with you?”
Keen looked at Rachel with a sad expression. “Dad and Mom went out ”
Rachel’s eyes flickered with curiosity. “Ms. Cameron is here too?“8
Thinking about his mom, Keen’s mood dropped. He nodded glumly.
Rachel approached the bed, her voice gentle. “Keen, where did you run off to today? You know your dad was worried sick about you, right?“}
Jasper chimed in, “Yeah, where did you go? When Rachel heard you’d run away, she was so worried she couldn’t even focus on her own stuff and rushed here to find you.”
“Unlike your mom… Jasper scoffed. “Haynie found out you were missing and called her right away. She acted like she couldn’t care less, told him to go find you himself, and then hung up.”
Keen looked up sharply. “Mom knew I was missing?”
Jasper shrugged nonchalantly. “Yep. As soon as Haynie realized you were gone, he called her first. She said something like, ‘If he’s missing, then find him. What good does it do to call me?”
These words didn’t come directly from Haynes, Rachel and Jasper overheard Haynes‘ assistant, Benson, talking about it with some other staff as they were coming up.
Benson hadn’t intended to criticize Stella; he was merely commenting on the stark contrast from the past. Stella used to be so anxious about her little boy that she’d be practically incoherent when calling for help. Now, she seemed indifferent saying things like “What good does it do to call me?” The shift in attitude was hard to reconcile
