The Lullaby Sky by Carolyn Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

town borrows the thing when they move. See y’all in a few minutes.”
    Sophie came bouncing down the hall, singing “I’ll Fly Away” so loud that it echoed all through the house. She made up words that she didn’t know and the new lyrics said that she would fly away, oh, glory, if Jesus would just send her some wings.
    Hannah giggled.
    Darcy laughed out loud.
    Travis picked up Sophie and swung her around until she squealed.
    When her feet were on the ground, she ran to Hannah’s side, her eyes darting around the room. “Mama,” she whispered. “Father will be so mad.”
    “Your father said that he doesn’t want any of this stuff,” Hannah said. She didn’t say that Sophie’s father—not her daddy by any means—didn’t want either of them, either.
    Travis hurried across the room, picked Sophie up, and tossed her onto the bed. “It’s a trampoline! See how high you can jump.”
    Hannah nodded. “It’s okay. Your father isn’t ever coming back here again, so we don’t have to worry about him getting angry. So bounce away, because this bed will be gone in an hour.”
    Sophie bent her knees and jumped several times before she fell backward on the bed. “I didn’t think you meant it when you said you were fixin’ the room all over. Why isn’t he comin’ back?”
    “Because we got a divorce and he let us have a new name, remember?” Hannah answered.
    “What’s a divorce?” Sophie asked.
    “It’s when a man and his wife decide they can’t live together anymore.” Hannah struggled to keep it as simple as possible.
    “And the judge in the court signs a paper and they aren’t married anymore,” Darcy said to help her out.
    “Then I like a divorce. Can that be our word for today?” She pointed toward the air-conditioning vent at the top of the wall. “What is that, Mama?”
    “It’s where the cold air comes out in the summertime and the warm air comes out in the winter,” Hannah said.
    Sophie continued to point. “No, not that. You got a spider eye, too. I wonder if there’s one at Aunt Birdie’s house.”
    “What?” Hannah asked.
    “Lie down right here with me and you can see it. It’s little bitty and it’s red like a little spider eye.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d found a spider eye in your ceiling?” Hannah asked. Who knew when the exterminator could get out here?
    “I thought it was like the thing in the living room that you turn on to get cold air or hot air. Or”—Sophie giggled—“it was really like Charlotte in the book you read to me. Oh, I forgot to tell Nadine about Charlotte and her web. I got to go tell her.” Sophie bounded off the bed and down the hall.
    Darcy followed her and returned with a kitchen chair and a dinner knife. “If that’s what I think it is, Marty should be shot.”
    Hannah covered her face with her hands. “Please tell me it’s insects and not a camera. I feel violated even though . . . oh . . . my . . . God.” She felt the fire glowing in her cheeks. He’d filmed the abuse so he could watch it over and over again.
    Darcy crawled up on the chair and undid the screws. “It’s a nanny cam. Why would he do this?”
    Hannah went straight to the third step in the grief cycle that she’d read about concerning divorcing an abusive husband. Anger, as hot as a Texas wildfire, raged from her toes to the ends of her jet-black hair. “Hand it down to me, Darcy. And let’s go see how many more are in the house.”
    “I’ll take it to the bank with me on Monday and put everything we find in my safe deposit box. You’re already listed as the only other person who can open it if something happens to me, so if you ever need them for proof of anything . . .” She paused and handed the tiny camera down to Hannah. “I promise I won’t look at what’s on there. Since he hasn’t been home in months, it’s probably run out anyway. Besides, if there’s footage of him hitting you, I’d be tempted to kill the