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“Will they tell you? You’re not their guardian”

Oh, they’d tell him

A few ot off the phone Carrick eyed him, face pale “They’re not there, are they?”

“No And the secretary very gleefully told me that they just had her car towed froone and we have no idea where she is!”

Thea pulled the old car over to the side of the road They’d gotten off the bus in Lafayette and stayed the night in a cheap motel so she could pawn their mother’s necklace She’d used soh, it was actually better than their last car

She’d been driving for hours, only stopping to pee and so the boys could stretch their legs Right now, they were asleep in the back seat The sun was rising over the horizon as she stared out at the sign

Welcome to Haven, Texas

Hopefully, Maddox was right, and this place really did look out for woh for her to blend in Maddox said he lived on a ranch out of town, so maybe she wouldn’t see him Or at least not for a while

Even if she did see him, what did it matter? What would he do? Tell Jardin? He wouldn’t care

And if Jardin comes to visit?

Well, she’d cross that bridge when she got to it Right now, she had to find a job and somewhere for them to stay

One thing at a tio somewhere else

20

Haven was an interesting place

They’d only been there a few days and she’d just enrolled the boys in school today The teachers elco It was small, less than two hundred students Unfortunately, there wasn’t an advanced class they could go into, and she worried they wouldn’t be pushed enough But for the moment it would have to do