Before She Dies (Slaughter Creek) Read Online Free

stand, Norma carried Amelia to her room, dropped down into the rocking chair, and began to sing a lullaby, stroking Amelia’s baby fine hair and inhaling the scent of baby powder, lotion and all the sweet things little girls were made of.
    But frustration knotted her shoulders and neck when Amelia didn’t quiet.
    She had to do something.
    Tomorrow she’d carry Amelia to the doctor and insist he run tests.
    She’d do anything she could to make sure Amelia received the help she needed to be healthy and have a happy life.

    Guilt ate at Ben as he finished his shift at the construction site. The foreman handed him a paycheck, and he headed to the bank. He needed to deposit some money in Norma’s account for the girls.
    Coward.
    Money didn’t compensate for him not being there, and he knew it.
    But Amelia’s cries and nightmares had intensified to the point that he hadn’t been able to sleep or think about anything but the fact that he’d passed on some horrible disease to his daughter.
    That if it wasn’t for him, she’d be happy and healthy. That maybe Norma and Sadie were better off without him.
    But the hurt on Norma’s face when he’d packed his bag tormented him. She was exhausted and just as worried as he was, but she hadn’t walked away from their child.
    Mentally berating himself wasn’t helping her though.
    He had to get his shit together and find a way to tell Norma the truth.
    Confessing might tear them even further apart, but Norma deserved to know that he hadn’t left because he didn’t love her and the girls.
    He did love them. With all his heart.
    Sweating, he climbed in his truck and drove to the graveyard where his sister was buried, then knelt by her grave. Her illness had taken its toll on his parents, had driven his father to drink and his mother to seek love in any bed she could find.
    He traced a finger over Geneva’s headstone, then the date she’d died. She’d only been eleven. The chromosome disorder had caused a multitude of health problems and had eventually eaten away at her body and brain until she hadn’t even known her name.
    Was that going to happen to Amelia?
    No, dammit.
    He stood and paced past the grave to the river, then picked up a stone and hurled it across the water. The rock skimmed the surface, skipping along the waves and splashing to the bottom below.
    The winter wind picked up and tossed leaves across the embankment, whirling others into the river. The dead leaves floated on the surface, brittle and crumbling as they floated downstream and were swallowed by the current.
    Just like he’d felt for the last two years.
    But it was time he stepped up and forgot about his own pain. His girls deserved better.
    He shouldn’t have left Norma and the twins. What kind of man deserted his family when they needed him?
    A bastard, that’s the kind.
    He tossed another rock in the river and watched it disappear, then turned and strode back to his car.
    He had to confess the truth to Norma. If she hated him, he’d have to live with it.
    Maybe doctors had made progress in treating the disorder in the last few years. Maybe they’d found a cure or a treatment that he didn’t know about.
    Feeling better now he’d decided to take action, he started the engine and headed to the apartment he’d rented on the other side of the mountain. He’d look up the specialists in Nashville and make an appointment for Amelia before he saw Norma. Maybe he’d even have hope to offer her when he saw them.
    He’d do whatever he had to do in order to take care of his family.

    Norma rocked Amelia in her arms as she sat in the waiting room at the free clinic. The room was packed with mothers and children who needed vaccinations, well baby checks and medicine.
    A little girl named Grace Granger was perched in the corner, her small body jerking and spasming as if she was having a seizure. Another boy named Joe Swoony grunted as he banged his head against the wall.
    An uneasy feeling slivered through