“For a while. I don’t know how old I was for sure, but I think about eleven when he ditched me.”
“Ditched you?”
“We moved a lot.” She did remember that. “Stayed in crummy places. Sometimes he’d get an apartment, sometimes it was those motels that rent rooms by the week. You know.”
He nodded. She saw that much, although she could no longer meet his eyes. The police and then social workers had dragged some of this out of her back then, but she hadn’t told them everything, out of fear or loyalty, she didn’t know which.
“It was a really scuzzy motel that time. In, um, Bakersfield. California,” she added, in case he didn’t know. “It was night. He said he was going out. He did that a lot.” And she’d been relieved. Maybe he wouldn’t wake her up when he came in. “Only this time, he never came back. When he wasn’t there in the morning, I realized he had taken my stuff into the room but not his. He meant to leave me.”
A shudder passed through Seth—no, Detective Chandler. His hand that rested on the table knotted into a fist so tight, his knuckles showed white. Bailey eyed that fist, knowing it should frighten her and wondering why it didn’t.
What was truly remarkable, considering the rage vibrating in him, was the kindness in his voice. “What did you do?”
“I waited. I don’t know, two or three days, I think. If he came back and I was gone, he’d have been furious. I sneaked out a few times and stole some food. There was a Burger King a couple of blocks away. If you sort of lurk in a place like that, people throw food away, or they just leave it on the table. Eventually, the motel manager let himself into the room because he hadn’t paid. That’s when the police came.”
“Did they try to find out who you were?”
“I don’t know,” she said uncertainly. “I said he was my daddy, and I think they believed that. I know they looked for him, but he was gone. So I went into foster care.” She shrugged. Habit. A way of saying, No biggie, that’s the way it was.
“Why do you think he left you then?”
She looked down at her hands. “I think because my body was changing. He didn’t like that.”
“He used you sexually.” Detective Chandler sounded almost calm.
Bailey flashed a dark, scathing look at him. “What do you think?”
He closed his eyes. Tendons stood out in his neck and a nerve pulsed in his jaw. She waited while he fought for control.
Finally he looked at her with eyes that were almost black. “I’d like to get my hands on him.”
Surprised, she said, “That was a very long time ago. You didn’t know me.”
“I feel like I did. I’ve immersed myself in your life. In that day. What everyone did, said, thought. The child you were is very real to me.”
“I’m glad she is to one of us,” Bailey joked.
His eyes narrowed a flicker, as if she’d startled or even shocked him.
“That girl is a complete stranger to me,” she explained. “It’s why I wasn’t sure I wanted to make this pilgrimage.” Her word choice caught her by surprise. Was that how she saw this?
“I understand, although it’s going to be hard on the Lawsons.”
“I can’t help that.”
He nodded. “Are you ready to meet them?”
She had a feeling he’d been about to say “your parents,” and appreciated the fact that he didn’t. Parents... Well, there was an unreal concept.
Hoping her panic wasn’t visible, she asked, “Would they be home at this time of day?”
He glanced at his watch. “I don’t know, but we can find out.”
Bailey almost begged him to give her time. Maybe this evening, she could say. Or tomorrow. Tomorrow sounded even better. But she guessed he wouldn’t let her out of his sight if he could help it. He suspected her of wanting to bolt, she knew.
And, oh, he had no idea how much she did want to.
“You’re so sure?”
His eyebrows rose again. “That you’re Hope? Yeah, I am. They had a photo of you naked in one of those little kid pools. You were maybe two. Investigators had it blown up because the birthmark was visible.”
After a moment, she nodded.
“I’ll remind the Lawsons that DNA confirmation is still a good idea, but that could take weeks. It would be cruel to leave them in the dark. They’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.”
She nodded, wringing her hands beneath the table where he couldn’t see. “First, will you tell me something about them?”
“Of course I will. I’m sorry. I should have thought of that. Kirk owns an auto body shop and tow truck. He’s a quiet man. I don’t know how much of that has to do with what happened to you, or if he always was. Your mother—Karen—was a schoolteacher. She quit to devote herself full-time to hunting for you. Eventually, she started working part-time, but out of the home. She couldn’t work with children, she said. She does machine-quilting.”
Bailey blinked. “That’s a big cut in pay.”
“I get the impression she stays as busy as she wants to.” He hesitated. “Three years after your abduction, they took in a foster daughter and eventually adopted her. Eve is a year younger than you, I believe.”
So they’d tried to replace her. Bailey wondered how that had worked. If she remembered them, she might be hurt, but as it was, nothing he’d said yet had triggered even the smallest of memories.
“It turns out I’m a little younger than I thought I was.” She made a face. “We guessed I was at least twelve when he left me. Because of the way I was developing.”
His gaze flicked to her irritatingly overabundant breasts.
Men always looked. And she never blushed, although—wow—her cheeks definitely felt warm.
“Is Bailey what he called you?” the detective asked.
She shook her head hard. Hard enough her hair clip slipped and she had to reach up to reanchor it. “No. I wouldn’t tell anyone my name. Eventually, they gave up and let me pick my own. I went to court to make it legal once I was an adult.”
“You know I’m going to want to know that name eventually.”
She compressed her mouth.
He took out his phone, his gaze never leaving hers.
* * *
SETH SUCCEEDED IN talking her into riding with him to the Lawsons’. She’d wanted to follow him.
Have
