Her Brother's Keeper by Beth Wiseman

could hear his mother crying from the other room.
    All this time, he’d been worried about how his parents would take care of the house and the land if Isaac ever left.
    Now he was wondering who would take care of them.

    Charlotte reread what she’d written this evening. Even though her journal was for her eyes only, the editor in her demanded perfection. She’d recently left the publishing house she’d worked at for two years, and now she edited manuscripts from home. The biggest perk was that she could structure her jobs and free time however she chose. If there was a downside, it was her inability to turn off her editor brain and simply enjoy a book. Same with her journal, which was supposed to be a record of her feelings. She went back and revised three sentences just the same, then read it a final time, starting from the beginning.
    August 21
    Well, I managed to snag a date with an Amish fellow. His name is Isaac, and I’m hoping that he knew Ethan. It’s a quest for information, but the guy is incredibly handsome, so even if Isaac can’t shed any light on what happened to my brother, I’ll just soak in his attractiveness.
    Charlotte smiled, considered changing “attractiveness,” but jumped when someone knocked on the door. “Hang on. Just a minute.” She stood up and stuffed the legal pad between the mattresses. “Come in.”
    Hannah peeked her head in. “Sorry to bother you, but I need to get something from underneath the bed. I had stored some quilting odds and ends in a box, and I’d like to piece them together for a friend’s baby blanket.”
    â€œCome on in.” Charlotte sat down on the bed and crossed her legs beneath her, fighting the urge to play with her phone, which was supposed to be for emergencies.
    She jumped again when Hannah yelled, “Ow!” followed by a thud against the bed frame. Hannah slid herself out from under the bed, but she wasn’t toting any quilting supplies. Instead she was pulling out Charlotte’s emergency fire rope, and before Charlotte could explain, Hannah held it up and shook it. Her face was fire-engine red, and her bottom lip trembled. “What is this? Tell me now! Why do you have this?” She threw it on the bed. “Tell me, Mary!”
    Charlotte stood up and faced off with her. “Good grief. Quit yelling, and I’ll tell you. It’s because—”
    The bedroom door flew open. “Hannah!” Lena sailed into the room. “What is going on in here? I was coming down the hall to speak with Jacob, and I heard you yelling.”
    Charlotte lifted her shoulders, held them there, and shook her head. “I have no idea.”
    Hannah was shaking all over as she pointed to the bed. “Look what she has, Mamm .” Then Charlotte’s pretend cousin grabbed both of Charlotte’s arms and squeezed. “Please tell me that you are not planning to take your own life. Please tell me that you have brought this rope into our home for some other reason. Why would you hide it under the bed in this way?” She swiped at the stream of tears going down her face, and Charlotte realized the cause of Hannah’s outbreak.
    â€œNo, no, no . . .” Charlotte maneuvered out of Hannah’s hold. “That’s not what it’s for. Of course not.” She stared at the floor as her own eyes filled with tears, and when she looked back at Hannah, it was impossible not to cry. “When I was a child I was trapped in my bedroom by a fire.” Charlotte could still smell the smoke when she recalled the event. “I couldn’t get out of the two-story house without landing on concrete. A fireman saved me at the very last minute. I take that rope everywhere I go so that I won’t ever be trapped again.”
    Hannah buried her face in her hands and sobbed before she ran out of the room, repeatedly saying how sorry she was.
    Lena put a hand on