Such a Quiet Place: A Novel(76)

Molly let the door swing open, stepping back into her house.

Their house appeared perfect inside, like always. The counters cleaned, dishes put away. But I was starting to see the cracks in the facade. The things that had gotten away from them. The door of the cabinet under the sink, off its top hinge. The family photos that hung from the walls, that hadn’t been changed—Bob standing beside Charlotte, the girls barely up to their shoulders. As if they still existed like this. As if Charlotte never wanted to acknowledge the truth.

I slapped the photo down on the island between us. “Hello there,” I said. “Want to tell me why you keep leaving this for me?”

Molly swallowed, hand to the base of her neck. “Looks to me like you’re doing something illegal,” she said, but her voice was soft, and she looked behind her, like she was afraid. I could tell I’d surprised her, caught her off guard. That she had never expected someone here to be so direct.

“Oh, but I’m not,” I said. “And Margo… What are you doing, Molly? Why are you threatening us? What do you think they’ll say when they find out it’s you?”

“You all act like such good people,” she said, crossing her arms. “But I see you all. I see what you do.”

“This is blackmail,” I said, even though she didn’t say what she wanted in return.

“It’s just what I see,” she said with a shrug. She gave me a sly grin. “Did you know Mr. Wellman once left their baby in the car?”

The room hollowed out; a pit formed at the base of my stomach. “Yes, Molly. I did. And I know you did nothing to help.”

She frowned. “He’s not a good parent. He got distracted by a phone call when he pulled into the driveway, left that kid in the car when he went inside. But Mrs. Wellman, she had a fit. An absolute fit.” She shook her head. “It’s not safe to do things like that.”

Like Tate said, such a small thing could ruin your life.

But Molly wasn’t some innocent bystander. “And you just left him there. You didn’t think to knock on the door? To tell them?”

She blinked rapidly, as if it hadn’t occurred to her. “He was fine,” she said. “I would have. Obviously.”

But I could tell I had rattled her. “I think you don’t understand the things you see,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes. “I understood just fine. I see more than all of you. I mean, Preston lives next door, and he flirts with my sister, who is eighteen. And no one says anything. You know he brought her home once? Last year?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t know that.” But I had learned to stay quiet, that the best defense was a strong offense, and that’s exactly what Molly was doing. She was revealing it all—what everyone fought to keep hidden—to justify her actions.

“She went to some party at the college, and I guess he broke it up, found her there. Brought her back home.”

“That sounds like the responsible thing to do,” I said.

“Does it?” she asked, making a face. “Rumor at school is that there’s a guy in security who will come to the party to break it up. But sometimes he doesn’t. He just acts like he will.”

I SEE YOU.

That note I’d found in the Seavers’ upstairs office had definitely been left for Preston. Me, Margo… and Preston. That was the common thread. We had each testified in Ruby’s trial.

The threat was implied: Say it was Ruby. Stick to your statements. It had to be Ruby.

There was so much here that we wanted to keep secret, and she was reminding us of the one fact we’d always been sure of: Any one of us could turn into a suspect. If it wasn’t Ruby, it might’ve been one of us.

“None of you are paying attention,” Molly continued. “Watch him. Ruby was.”

“Ruby was watching him?”

“She knew. She asked me about it once—I had her for class, you know. She asked me, and she asked Whitney, if there was anything we wanted to tell her. Promised us that she was someone we could tell, and she’d make sure no one found out it had come from us.” She rolled her eyes. “But knowing Ruby, I’m sure she just wanted to screw him over.”

Preston knew she’d been watching him, and he didn’t trust her. Maybe he thought I knew as well. Maybe Ruby had told Mac about it when he went to visit her. And he’d come to me after, to see what I knew.

Maybe I was being paranoid. Seeing danger everywhere, in everyone. Doubting every motivation, every interaction. As if the foundation of this entire neighborhood had been built on half-truths and white lies.

“You took his picture?” I asked.

“He shouldn’t be talking to my sister. Should he even be allowed to live here?” She put her hands on her hips, channeling power. “You think people will be mad at me when they find out?”

“Yes,” I said. Because it wasn’t just Preston. “I think people are going to be very angry.”

Molly handed the photo back to me like a reminder: It was time to go, and I needed to remember who had the power here. But I wasn’t done.

“Ruby told you both she was someone you could always turn to,” I said. “I remember that.”

“Yeah, well, good thing I never did.”

“She left a spare key out back,” I continued, “told you where you could find it.”