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Which brings me back to why I’ve returned home.
I kill the engine and grip the wheel with tender hands. We’ve got our first scan today. It’s huge. I’m still blown away by being a dad. I can’t wait. I can’t—
My gut clenches up, and suddenly the temperature drops all around me.
The door is wide open. What I’ve been fearing kicks in.
“Mimi?” I scream, getting out of the car. I know I’m probably being stupid. It’s just an open door… but I run into the house, screaming again and again. No one’s here. They’re not here. They’re—
I hear a groan as I crunch on broken glass. I come to a stop.
It all but confirms my worst fear.
“Mimi?” I call again.
Another groan, then, “Sebastian?”
“Isabella!” I tear through the house looking for her, every room is dark and hiding only the furniture. I come to her room and find her tipped over. “Isabella!” I turn to look, and Mimi’s mother looks exhausted. “What happened?”
“Two big men came,” she says. “I’ve been lying down there for an hour.”
“What?” My eyes burst from my head, and I start untying her. “How? When? Where’s—” But the words are barking out of me short and half mad. I can’t even get a sentence out.
“I’m so sorry,” she says. “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t stop them.”
“Isabella, no.” I finish untying her, and she can finally rub her sore wrists. “But how are you here? Why were you left?”
She looks like she’s going to break down. In the dark light, she looks at me with so much hurt in her eyes. But another thought flashes through my mind, and I realize how much Mimi and her look alike.
“They meant to take both of us,” she begins. “They were saying as much before she came. But I thought, well, I was so afraid, but I thought if I faked a heart attack or something, maybe they’d leave me…” She breaks down and begins wailing. “I’m horrible.”
“No,” I say, taking her hand. “You’re alive, but they think you’re dead. They don’t know we know about them yet.”
“But I abandoned my baby girl.”
“You might’ve saved her.” I rub her hands in mine. “Okay. These men, were they Eastern European? Russian?”
She nods. “Yes. How did you know?”
“It’s a long story, but it only confirms everything that’s been going on.”
Isabella looks at me now with concern mixed with frustration. She purses her lips finally. “But what do we do?”
“What happened? Start to finish, while they were here?” I squat now and continue holding her hands.
She’s gnawing on her lip and looking around the room, reliving the horror. “They came for me while she was gone. She’d only gone out for a few moments too. They just exploded in and grabbed me. They threatened me and made me tell them where she was going and what was happening, but it wasn’t even anything important. They dragged me in here and tied me up. Mimi was home really soon after. She’d only gone to the store…” She pauses and pulls her hands away. “It was so scary. They just—they were angry. But they gave away no reason. Just kept referring to Carlos. Sebastian, what has Carlos done?”
Now I retract my hands. “I don’t know what he’s fully done.”
Isabella frowns. “My boy has always been foolish.”
The sense of urgency hasn’t left me though. “After Mimi returned?”
“Well, she thought she could pay them. She went to give them her life savings, and there must’ve been a fight. I heard Mimi screaming. It was horrible. It was the worst. That was the worst part of it all. I couldn’t tell what was happening.”
I take Isabella’s hand again.
“Then they were back, and that’s when I had the idea of the seizure.”
