Chapter 3

"Absolutely not!" Chief Hank yelled, grabbing my arm. "Molly, that's insane. You don't know what you're doing!"

"I know enough," I replied, pulling my arm free. I looked at my mother-in-law, whose eyes were wide with a mixture of terror and hope. "It's the only way. She can't hold on."

Her breath was coming in ragged gasps. Any second, her muscles would fail and it would all be over.

"It's just weight," I said, trying to sound confident. I repeated the words Andrew had slurred at me, the one useful thing he ever taught me. "The trigger just needs constant pressure. If I put my foot down right next to hers, and we shift the weight slowly... it should work."

"Should?" Hank repeated, his face a study in horror.

I ignored him. I knelt down, my eyes locked on my mother-in-law's. "Mom, listen to me. I need you to trust me. I'm not letting you die."

She nodded, tears blurring her vision.

"Leo," I said, not taking my eyes off the device. "You and the others, take my mother-in-law and go find Andrew again. Don't call him. Go right to him. Let him see his mother's face. Let him tell her to her face that he won't save her."

I took a deep, steadying breath. Carefully, I placed my boot right beside her worn-out sneaker, the metal of the pipe bomb cold and hard against the thin rubber of my sole.

"Okay, Mom. On three," I whispered. "Slowly. Shift your weight toward me. One... two... three."

There was a terrifying, infinitesimal shift. A faint groan of stressed metal. I held my breath, my entire body rigid. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drumbeat in the sudden silence of the lot.

Then, nothing.

I had the weight. The bomb was mine now.

My mother-in-law stumbled back, collapsing into the arms of the waiting EMTs. She was sobbing, a string of thank-yous and I'm-sorrys.

"Go," I said, my voice strained. "Find him. Show him what his love for Sabrina is costing his family."

She looked at me one last time, her face a mess of tears and gratitude, before Leo helped her into the truck. They sped away, leaving me alone with Chief Hank, standing on a bomb in a forgotten corner of a forgotten town, waiting for a second betrayal I knew was coming.