Page 50 of Breathless
“Did this come here?” she asked, looking at it. “No. I see it came to my address. Which makes more sense. How would they know I was volunteering here, right?” She gave a little laugh. “Why didn’t you give it to me earlier?”
“You were nervous about your appointment. I didn’t want to distract you,” he explained.
“Right.” Chaney laid her work aside. Opening the letter with her finger, she quickly read it and frowned. “Justus and I are being summoned for pre-trail prep next week.”
“Where?” he asked.
“That law building where we first met,” she said. “I wonder if Justus got her letter today as well?”
“She might.”
“I’ll call her this evening and see,” she said. “Let Hannah know what it said, please. And that I’m sorry to have to be away again.”
He nodded. “I will. Are you going to be okay about this?”
“Sure. Why not?” she said.
“Because I can tell you aren’t,” Rawlins said.
“I can too,” Lydia said, putting aside her work. “I’ve come to pick up on your tell-tale signs Chaney Daniels and I’m seeing them loud and clear since you got that letter. Your breathing has changed. You’re being polite. Your fingers are trembling just the tiniest bit.”
“They are,” Rawlins agreed.
Chaney’s cheeks flushed. “I had no idea I was that easy to read.”
“There is nothing to be worried about,” Rawlins assured her. “I think the deposition should have been the harder part. You went in not knowing what it would be like to meet us with Felty. But now McAdams will prepare you to go to trial and knock it out of the ballpark.”
Chaney looked between the two of them. “Thank you both for your concern, but I will be fine. Sure, I’m not looking forward to the trial. I’d rather wish it didn’t have to happen, but I know it must. I will get through it and hopefully, then my life can start to regain some semblance of normalcy again. I know I keep striving for it every day even though more and more roadblocks occur.”
“You are doing a courageous job at it too,” Lydia praised. “Keep up the good work. I know you will one day feel like you have reached it. I wish we all could achieve it when we haven’t been through a speck of what you have.”
Chaney smiled at her. “Thank you, Lydia for those wonderful words.”
Rawlins bid them farewell and headed back to the security office running into Hannah on his way. “It was as I suspected. We will be at pre-trial prep all next week. Hopefully the trial will soon follow.”
“Okay. Once she learns the actual dates of the trial let me know and I’ll mark you both off during then as well,” Hannah said.
“No problem,” Rawlins said. As he walked down the hallway, he pulled out his phone and sent Rafferty a text to see whether Justus had received the same letter Chaney had. He really couldn’t wait until they got home for her to make the phone call. He suddenly had a need to hear from his brother.
Rafferty responded quickly.She did and she’s worried about it.
Rawlins wrote back.Chaney is too. But she’s trying to be strong.
Rafferty typed something but didn’t send it because there were three dots that flashed and flashed, and Rawlins waited several minutes for him to finish the thought. Finally, the dots stopped flashing. Had he erased what he’d typed?
Then the dots appeared again.
I think both will do fine.
Rawlins thought about that for a moment and typed back.Same.
Let’s do breakfast before we go the first morning. I think it will be good for the girls, Rafferty wrote.
Sounds like an excellent plan, Rawlins responded.
I’ll send you the location and time, Rafferty said.
Perfect, Rawlins said.Gotta run.
