The yellow wallpaper above the kitchen counter had curled so far forward that the draft from the hallway made it click against the plaster. Lauren pressed her thumb against the dry paper, trying to smooth it back down, but the cheap adhesive had failed long ago. A damp draft swept under the door, carrying the scent of wet asphalt from Maple Street.
A sudden shadow blocked the light through the frosted glass of the front door, followed by the heavy rustle of paper grocery bags scraping the wood.
Lauren opened the door and froze.
Ruth stood in the narrow hallway of the Canton apartment, holding two overstuffed paper bags and a white bakery box with a red ribbon tied around it.
“You should keep your lower lock turned,” Ruth said, stepping past her without waiting for an invitation. “The street door downstairs was wide open, and anyone could have walked right up these stairs.”
Lauren looked at her mother-in-law’s wool coat, which smelled of autumn rain and expensive lavender soap. The contrast between Ruth’s neat gray hair and the dingy plaster of the hallway made Lauren’s chest tighten.
“Ruth, what are you doing here?” Lauren asked, her hand still resting on the brass doorknob. “Indianapolis is three hours away.”
Ruth set the grocery bags on the laminate kitchen counter, her knuckles white from the strain of carrying them.
“Your father-in-law is at an engineering conference in Columbus, and I decided I was not going to sit in that empty house another day,” Ruth said, brushing a stray raindrop from her collar. “Besides, Zoe has a birthday next week, and I do not trust the mail with a proper bakery cake.”
Lauren stared at the white box, her throat tightening as she realized her privacy was entirely gone.
How was she going to keep her secret now, with her critical mother-in-law standing in the middle of her cramped, rented kitchen?
In exactly four weeks, the temporary lease on this drafty Canton apartment would expire, and Lauren still had no idea where she would take her two children. Her savings were down to a double-digit balance, and the family home in Cincinnati was locked behind a wall of corporate legal maneuvers she could not afford to fight.
