Read Saving Grace for Free Online

tightly.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou’re Brianna’s father and you don’t even care about her.”
    â€œI don’t want to be her father,” Justin said. “She was a freakin’ accident. We screwed around and we screwed up. She’s only here ’cause the condom broke. I’m not her father, Evie, and you’re not her mother. Not for real. Her real mother and father are back there in that house probably going crazy worrying about her.”
    I finally managed to twist out of his grasp. I could see the red imprint of his fingers on my wrist.
    â€œWe’re her family,” I said. “We’re the only family she needs.” Briannawas crying. I put my hand on her head. “You’re scaring her, Justin.”
    â€œGive it up, Evie,” Justin said. He pulled his hand through his hair again. “We’re not a family. She has one but we’re not it. You think you’re gonna be a fashion designer in Montreal? Right. You’ll end up working at the dollar store. You saw that house. Those people can give her stuff that you can’t.”
    â€œYou mean like a big house and fancy clothes? That stuff doesn’t matter. Nobody can love Brianna like I do.” I straightened her little hat and she twisted her head away from me.
    â€œShe doesn’t even like you, Evie,” Justin said quietly.
    â€œShe just doesn’t remember me. But she will,” I said. “She spent nine whole months inside me. She knows me. She’ll remember.”
    â€œYou just don’t get it. It’s not happening.” Justin wiped his hand down the side of his face. “We’d be lucky to even get close to Montreal. You think thecops aren’t going to catch up with us? You kidnapped a baby, Evie. She isn’t yours anymore.”
    â€œYou know, you’re acting like you don’t even love your own kid,” I said.
    â€œI don’t,” Justin said. “But the Hansens do. We have to take her back. Maybe they’ll let you come and visit and stuff. You know, like at Christmas and her birthday.”
    â€œI don’t want to visit a couple of times a year,” I shouted. “I want to be with her all the time. And after this do you really think they’d let me anywhere near her? I’m not going back.”
    â€œI’m not doing this,” Justin said. “It’s over, Evie.” He snapped the side of my head with his thumb and finger. “Get that through your head.” Then he turned and stalked away.
    My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I made myself take some deep breaths in and out, but they were all jerky. I got back into the truck and bent over Brianna. She’d stopped crying.Her face was flushed. “Don’t worry,” I told her. “Nobody’s taking you away from me. Not Justin. Not the police. Not anybody.”
    I looked around the service station lot. Then I saw Justin inside the building. He was talking on the phone.
    No.

Chapter Eleven
    It felt like someone had punched me in the gut. Tears filled my eyes and rolled down my face. I swiped them away with the edge of my hand. There was no time. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered to the baby.
    I felt around on the floor of the truck and shoved everything into the backpack—the bottle of water, the rest of the juice, my purse, everything. Then I unfastened the seat belt that was holdingthe car seat in place. I looked over at the convenience store again. Justin was still on the phone. My heart felt like it had jumped up into my throat, but I knew what I had to do.
    I reached up and turned off the little dome light in case Justin looked this way. I opened the truck door, slid down off the seat and hiked my pack onto my back. Then I grabbed the car seat and, staying low to the ground, scurried across the parking lot and let the darkness swallow us.
    There wasn’t any traffic on the road, but I stayed way