Page 83 of Holden’s Resurrection

But when Holden caught sight of Ayla’s father, he was happy Charleigh wasn’t there. The man looked destroyed. There was no shortage of anger rolling off the older man. But it was the sadness that hit Holden in the gut.

“Mr. Purdy. What can we do for you?” Nixon asked.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” Mr. Purdy started. “Ayla’s pregnant.”

Oh, fuck.

The man swallowed and looked at his feet.

“Nix—” McKenna paused in the doorway and started to back out into the hallway. “Excuse me, I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”

“You know.” There was no missing Jonny’s cold, hard tone.

“Um.” McKenna glanced at her husband and he nodded. “Yes.”

“Is there anything else we should know?”

Technically, McKenna was breaking the law by hacking into Ayla’s phone. Jonny didn’t ask how McKenna found the information she found and she never admitted to illegal activity.

There had been times when the proper warrants had been obtained, but this was not one of those times.

“Elliana’s worried she is, too,” McKenna softly said.

“How did you find out your daughter was pregnant?” Holden inquired.

“Periodically, my wife checks Ayla’s phone. She’s not allowed to have a passcode on it. This morning while Ayla was in the shower, KiKi looked through her phone and saw one of those disappearing messages… you know from that app… I can’t remember the name. Anyway, my wife saw the last message Ayla sent to Elliana telling her she was pregnant. The message had expired before KiKi could show me. But I did read the message from Elliana that said ‘he’s gonna freak’.”

“Did either of them say who “he” is?”

“No,” Mr. Purdy answered and Holden turned to McKenna.

“No.”

Fucking hell.

“Did you confront Ayla?” Nixon entered the questioning.

“No. We thought it was best to talk to the police first.”

“Why is that?” McKenna asked. “I mean, why report her pregnancy to the police?”

“Because there is something wrong. She’s not the same. After that night, something changed in my little girl.” There was no missing the hitch in the father’s voice.

No one said a word. It was obvious he had more to say but needed a moment to compose himself.

“She was…she…something happened to her. And now she’s pregnant.”

“Please, Mr. Purdy, have a seat,” Nix offered.

Christ. Jonny had been right.

“I want you to find the man responsible,” Mr. Purdy demanded as he sat in the chair Nix had offered. The room went still at the older man’s ragged voice, he struggled to keep his emotions in check but lost the battle. His shoulders sagged and he let out a gut-wrenching roar, “She’s…she’s…” The wounded disjointed words coming from a father undone had acid churning in Holden’s stomach.

Unable to watch a father in extreme pain, Holden turned to McKenna. “What else were the girls talking about?”

“The last message Elliana sent to Ayla was reminding her they’d made a pact not to talk about what happened.”

Jesus.