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Julia
Lachlan grasped my hand as he led me from his garage and toward the house. When we approached the door, I hesitated, unsure if I could walk inside, cross that threshold and see everything just as it was the last time I was here.
When I still had my daughter.
It would serve as a reminder that she was gone.
That Nick had won yet again.
As her mother, I had one job. To keep her safe.
I’d failed.
Sensing my unease, Lachlan squeezed my hand. “Are you okay?”
I blew out something between a laugh and a cry.
“Sorry. Of course you’re not okay. Nothing about any of this is okay. I just…”
He palmed my lower back, wrapping me in his embrace. I didn’t know if it were because he sensed I needed to feel him or because he needed to feel me. Needed this reminder that we still had each other.
As he drew in a deep breath, he pinched my chin, tilting up my head to meet his eyes. “I just need to know you’re as okay as you can be.”
I gave him my best attempt at a smile. “I’m okay as I can be.”
He nodded slightly, swiping a few tears from my cheeks with his thumbs. “We don’t have to stay here. If it’s too much…” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in a hard swallow, Imogene’s disappearance nearly as difficult for him to cope with as it was for me. “We can go somewhere else. Stay in a hotel.”
While the idea of staying someplace where I wouldn’t be surrounded by physical reminders of my daughter was appealing, I doubted it would make a difference. Imogene was a part of me. Every time I looked at my reflection, I’d see her.
“I appreciate the offer…” I pressed my hand to his cheek, savoring in the scruff of his unshaven jawline. “But like I said last week. I’m not going to let Nick chase me out of my home.”
“Then let’s go home.” He lowered his lips to mine, treating me to a sweet kiss. Then he pulled back, his hold on my hand tighter than normal as we walked into the house.
I paused just inside the foyer, my gaze sweeping over the open living space. Everything was precisely as it was when we left for Imogene’s soccer game. Trays of my latest sweet concoctions sat on the kitchen island. The television we’d forgotten to turn off earlier flickered, the news not only covering Nick’s escape, but also Imogene’s disappearance, a montage of photos I’d given the police appearing on the screen. But that wasn’t what stopped me in my tracks, the weight of everything finally crushing me.
It was the shoes I nearly tripped over in the foyer.
Imogene’s shoes.
As if able to sense my impending breakdown, Lachlan strode over and quickly turned off the television before returning to me and pulling me into his arms.
“We’ll find her,” he assured me for what felt like the hundredth time in the past few hours. And each time, his determination seemed to increase.
As did his anger.
“I swear to you, Julia. I am going to do everything I can to bring her home to you. To us. To the people who love her.” He cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Make no mistake. I love that smart-ass daughter of yours. You don’t get to hurt the people I love and not suffer the consequences. He will pay for this. For everything he’s done and gotten away with. This time, he’s fucked with the wrong person.”
I wrapped my arms around him, resting my head against his chest, drawing strength from his conviction.
While part of me feared Nick would end up victorious, no matter what we did to catch him and get my daughter back, I couldn’t dwell on that. Couldn’t give up.
Not when Imogene needed me the most.
“Thank you, Lachlan. If you weren’t here…” I choked out a sob. “I’d be a fucking wreck if it weren’t for you.” I lifted my eyes to his.
“I love you,” he said with a quiver. “So fucking much.”
“And I love you.”
