Page 77 of Stand

“Because they’remine, you bastard. Mine! I made them. They’re mine. Andyoudon’t want me to have them. And that’s reason enough in itself.”

So she didn’t even care about the kids for themselves. They were just pawns. Sam wanted to knock her through the fence and into the road.

“How did you get here?” Ty said.

His phone began ringing. He ignored it, but Julia said, “Go ahead, Tyler. I got all day.”

He took the phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, and said to Sam, “It’s Lauren.”

“Oooh, Lauren!” Julia mocked. “Lovely lawyer Lauren! Did you sleep with her, too, while we were married?”

Sam didn’t need to ask to know that Ty hadn’t slept with anyone but Julia when they were married. And he, again, had given up explaining himself. He hit the button. Sam didn’t take her eyes off Julia.

“Hi,” he said. “Okay. Oh, Newark. Yeah. No. Dallas is a hub. She probably got a driver here from Santa Fe. Yeah, she’s right here.” He paused. “Yeah.”

He pressed the button again. “You can’t be here,” he reiterated.

“And yet!” she exclaimed, widening her eyes as if in shock. “Here I am! Hi, Noah!” She waved her fingers at Noah.

“Wish I could say it’s a pleasure,” Noah grunted. So much anger in one simple sentence.

Julia hefted the pitchfork and looked at it. “Thanks for the pitchfork.” Like a baton, she twirled it at arm’s length for a couple of turns before pointing it at them. “’Cause I heard you were with him, Sam Fielding.”

“I am,” Sam had to say.

“Well, I see that.” Julia rolled her eyes as though Sam were an idiot. “Not gonna let you touch me today.”

“And I,” Sam said in a conversational tone, “am not going to let you touch Ty today.”

Julia curled her lip. The pitchfork swung around her again and pointed at the other small dog. It barked at her and jumped forward and back on its little legs. She ran forward and jabbed at it. Noah shouted something, but the dog was too smart to get within reach of the tines. It backed up to Jimmy’s fence and set up a warning cascade of barks that rang in Sam’s ears and made her wince.

“You’re not mad at the dogs,” Ty said. “Don’t take it out on them.”

“You’re so right.” Julia moved forward. Sam held her breath. Would she really use that fork against people? Was she really that unhinged? Was Matt right?

“What are you going to do?” Ty said, as though reading Sam’s mind. “You won’t get out of jail this time if you attack us. You can’t say it was a second of madness this time. You’ve had a day and a night to think this over.”

“I have.” Julia stopped maybe ten feet away from the three of them. She held up the pitchfork like a staff and looked at its tips as though they were old friends. “The pitchfork was a bonus, I must say. But generally, yeah. I know what I want to say to you, Tyler.”

“Then say it.” Ty seemed to deliberately relax, folding his arms and moving his feet. “And let’s make this the last time we talk, huh?”

“Ha!” Julia took a firmer grip on the fork. “You wish. I’m not going to let you take those kids from me. You can hide them in that house as long as you like, but you’ll have to go back to Massachusetts eventually. And I’ll be there.”

“You won’t,” Sam said. “You’ll be in jail. You jumped bail.” Something loosened in her. She was all in, and there was no reason not to tell this woman what she thought of her. “You’re such an idiot, Julia. You think any judge would let you near Matt and Lyss after you pulled this stunt? It’s over. Can’t you see that?”

Julia’s eyes widened, and she bared her teeth again. “Shut up. You don’t know anything about it.”

“I knowallabout it,” Sam said.

“You think you’d be a better mother than me?” Julia sneered. “You don’t have kids of your own, so you want mine?”

“At least I’ll never leave them at a movie theater because I got bored.”

Julia’s eyes snapped to Ty. “Youtoldher about that? You rat bastard!”

“Sticks and stones, Julia,” Sam said. “We’re all done here. Come on, Ty.”

She knew she was baiting Julia by saying this, but she wanted the painful tension in the yard to cease. She knew that by turning her back on Julia, she was going to drive her to the edge one way or the other, but then the game would be done and Ty could get on with his life.

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