Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“The day you left, excuse me, the day you were taken. Do you remember that?” She took her time answering as the tension in the room grew.
“Yes. I was making dinner, a special dinner.” She looked at me again. “I was going to tell you about the baby. I’d been to the doctor and confirmed. I’d suspected for some time but I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure.”
I kissed her forehead and fought back the tears that threatened. Each time I thought of my children my heart felt like it would explode.
“Okay so you went to the doctor that day?” He was taking notes, asking what doctor and where his office was. She answered him so I guess she wasn’t suffering from any form of amnesia except for what happened after she was taken.
“And what happened after you left the doctor? Did you see anyone following you, did anything strike you as strange that day? Any strange phone calls?”
“No nothing like that. At least not that I can remember.” I could see they were getting frustrated and for some reason their attitudes helped me to see how I’d been behaving, and what that must look and feel like to her.
If what she was saying was true, then she must feel so alone, and scared. I reinforced my promise to myself to give her my support; to show her that I believed her.
Cade
I ran my hand over her hair and kissed her temple. My baby! How am I going to make this right? Where do I begin? I listened as they tried prodding her memory, each time getting a little bit more out of her.
“I had just turned the stove off when the doorbell rang. I was excited and not thinking about anything else but giving you the good news when you got home.”
No one interrupted her this time as she tried to put the pieces together. Her voice had grown a little bit stronger but there was still a slight trembling in her body as she clung to me.
“I saw a delivery van out the side window by the door and just opened it. That’s all I remember until I woke up in the cabin.”
“I don’t know how long I was out for. He must’ve drugged me with something. When I woke up I heard voices in the next room.”
She swallowed hard and I could see in her eyes that she was reliving it as she told us the story. “I was chained to a bed and my eyes were covered.”
“I don’t remember much about that first night because I kept going in and out of consciousness. The next time I woke up I was in the box.” Her breathing escalated and I was afraid she would pass out. I wanted to call a halt but she carried on.
“I begged them not to hurt me and the baby.” Her hand went to her empty stomach.
“Are you looking for our babies?” She reached for Borelli’s hand and held on tight.
“We have to find them.” She started to cry and I called a stop to the interview. “Look can we take this up again later? My wife is tired, she needs her rest.”
It was hard for me to say that, I wanted answers as much as they did, but not at the expense of her health and mental state. I never want to see her lying there like that again, like there was no life left in her.
“She needs to give us more if we’re to find these babies. So far she hasn’t given us anything that we can work with. There’re a thousand cabins between here and the next state over on both sides. If there’re kids out there the clock is ticking.”
“What do you mean if? The doctor said she gave birth while she was gone.” I saw the new look that passed between the two men and hated it. I guess it was going to take some time before the doubts were gone.
“It’s okay Cade, I want to answer them. I want to remember.” I pulled her onto my lap making sure to keep her decent as I folded my arms around her.
“They kept me blindfolded the first few days so I never saw who took me, I only heard voices. After that there was a middle aged man and woman who seemed to live in the cabin.”
She stopped there and squinted hard. “There’s something….”
“What, what do you remember?” Borelli leaned forward from his place on the chair he’d pulled up next to the bed.
‘They seemed to know about the baby. There were things already there, vitamins, health stuff. And they kept talking about someone else, someone was paying them.”
“This is good Zan…Mrs. McClintock, take your time and give us anything you remember no matter how small it may seem. Just take your time if you need to and we’ll figure this thing out.”