Page 222 of You've Got Hate Mail
Other parents are picking up the pizza and cake.
Olivia and Samantha are moving Lav’s presents into the house.
Heath’s not doing it all on his own.
He’s taking help.
“I’m proud of you,” I murmur to him.
“I’m proud of—” he starts, but then he freezes as Lav starts screaming in the kind of terrified howl I’ve never heard come from her mouth.
“Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger!”
My blood runs cold.
All of the color drains from Heath’s face, and then he’s in motion, striding toward the older woman marching around the house with a sheriff’s deputy at her side.
“Cricket. Get Lav and take her inside, and don’t open the door for anyone,” Heath orders.
Mabel’s already grabbing Lav and running for the house though, Ginny and Vivian both on her heels. “We’ve got her,” Mabel calls.
“Stranger danger,” Lav’s sobbing.
I don’t need anyone to tell me who this woman is.
“See?” she’s saying to the deputy as she points to me. “He’s cavorting with—with—withporn stars. She’s selling videos of her private parts on the internet. He’s subjecting children to porn stars!”
Did I say my blood was cold?
I meant it’s glacier water.
Heath’s biggest fear—that his in-laws will try to take Lav again—is coming true.
And it’s my fault.
41
THE DEVIL WEARS LIES
Heath
This isn’t happening.It’s not fucking happening.
Not at Lav’s birthday party.
Not ever.
“Do you see that, Officer?” my mother-in-law repeats. “He’s letting his daughter fraternize with naked people. And wearingpink hair? He’s not fit.”
I stride across the lawn, all of Lav’s friends and their parents watching, my phone gripped in my hand, aware that my father’s right on my heels.
I need my attorney.
I can’t fucking afford my attorney because I’m saving every last dime I have to help save my goddamn fucking home, but I’m about to call my attorney.
But before I reach the devil-in-law, Cricket overtakes me.
“If you can’t tell the difference between an accident and intentional acts, thenyou’renot fit,” she says. “Deputy, I’m sorry to be so blunt, but this woman isn’t welcome here.”
