“Mommy, I’m cold,” Josie whispered, burying her face in my coat.
“I know, sweetheart. Just wait one second.”
Panic started rising in my chest.
I rang the doorbell.
Then I banged on the door.
“Derek! Open the door! It’s us!”
Movement appeared behind the frosted window beside the door. The porch light flicked on, and I saw my husband standing there.
He wasn’t alarmed.
He looked uncomfortable.
Then my brother-in-law, Travis, pushed him aside. Travis had a beer in his hand and a grin on his face like he was enjoying a joke.
He cracked open the window just enough to speak.
“Derek, the key doesn’t work,” I shouted. “Open the door!”
Travis laughed.
“Yeah, about that,” he said. “We changed the locks today.”
For a second I just stared at him.
My brain couldn’t catch up.
“What?”
“Autumn thought it would be funny,” he said with a shrug.
Autumn was his girlfriend—a woman I had welcomed into my home.
Then he added, “We’re having a family meeting. No outsiders.”
“Outsiders?” I shouted. “I’m his wife. Josie is his daughter. Open the door!”
Behind him, I saw my mother-in-law sitting comfortably in my recliner with a glass of wine. My father-in-law was laughing at the television. They all knew.
They all knew we were standing outside in a blizzard.
“Sorry, Val,” Travis sneered. “House rules. No losers tonight.”
