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Guarded Secrets

By Barbara Leann Harrison

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Guarded Secrets
The door stood ajar, and panic raced through her veins. She’d locked her ex-husband’s apartment door after retrieving his clothes for the funeral.
“Mom, did you forget to lock the door? You know Daddy always made me-” Tears clogged Penny’s throat.
Lilly Burkstrom pulled her daughter into her arms.
“I don’t understand, Mom,” Penny sobbed into her mother’s waist. “Why did Daddy have to die?”
It was a question Lilly asked herself. Peter had been murdered in a convenience store robbery gone bad.
It didn’t make much sense to her, a twenty-nine-year-old woman, so how could she expect her eight-year-old daughter to understand it?
“I don’t know, sweetie. I know you miss him. I do, too.”
Penny hugged her with a desperate intensity. “You won’t leave me, will you?” She looked up, her huge brown eyes glistening with tears.
Lilly’s heart broke. She wiped the wetness from her daughter’s cheeks. “No I won’t.” Although she and Peter had been divorced almost since Penny’s birth, they had come to terms with their failed marriage and had become friends. Peter’s recent salvation had changed all their lives. “I can take you home and do this by myself.”
Penny wiped away her tears and stepped back. “I want to help.”
Lilly pushed the door all the way open and peered inside. The condition of the apartment shocked her.
Penny gasped. “Mom, what happened?”
Lilly’s gazed swept the living room, dining room, and kitchen. It looked as if a tornado had ripped through the place, throwing things everywhere. Chairs and end tables had been tossed on their sides. The sofa had been turned over, and the cushions ripped and thrown around the room. The kitchen cabinets stood open; boxes of cereal and spaghetti spilled out from the shelves. Broken dishes and glasses littered the countertops and floor.
“I don’t know. Three days ago, when she’d been inside this apartment to get one of Peter’s suits for the funeral, everything was fine.
“I wonder if Dad’s bedroom is this way.” Penny started down the short hall.
A loud noise came from the bedroom.
Penny froze. When she turned her head, her frightened gaze met Lilly’s.
Lilly motioned for her daughter to come toward her. Penny turned and ran to her mother. Lilly rushed them out of the apartment and down the stairs. They retreated to Lilly’s car and Lilly whipped out her cell phone.
“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”
“I need to report a burglary.”

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