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My phone buzzes on my nightstand and I lean over to check who’s calling. The name on the display forces a rush of heat through my face as I grab the device and press the answer button. “Hello?”
“Haley?” Lara’s shaky voice says. She gasps a few times, sounding as if she’s been crying heavily ever since I last saw her, which I don’t doubt. “Please, help us and the police find her.”
“I have never seen her. And how can I help you when you told the police I did something to her?”
She takes a stuttering inhale. “She was there when I left. She was in her crib,” she utters. “Please, I’m begging you to help us find her. Is it money you want?”
I pull the phone away from my ear and stare at the display screen as if it just scalded me. “Money?” I reply. “I didn’t take your baby. I’m sorry that she’s missing, but I didn’t touch her. I didn’t know there was a baby in the house. You didn’t mention?—”
“How can you say this to me?” she cries out. “I’m dying from heartache and you’re telling me I never mentioned my own daughter?”
She didn’t. She never said a word. How does she not know this? Why is she lying?
“We shouldn’t be talking, Lara. You filed a person of interest report against me. I can’t do anything to help you, but despite the blame you inflicted on me, I am so sorry for what you are going through. I can’t imagine having a missing child.” I press my hand to my chest, feeling wrong but right saying what I am to her. I wouldn’t wish something like this on my worst enemy, but I don’t have any information that will help her. Any exchange between us will only cause more issues for me, I’m sure.
“Please,” she cries out. “I didn’t even tell the police about the bruises I found all over Madden and Blakely this morning. They said you hurt them last night.”
“What? No way. I didn’t lay a hand on them. I noticed those bruises too. Those weren’t from me. I would never hurt a child. Never.”
“Haley, I’m trying so hard to keep myself together…if you would just help me—please. We can work this all out.”
“What is she saying?” I hear her husband’s voice in the background.
I pull the phone down to my lap, my hand shaking as I press the end-call button. My throat tightens and tears fill my eyes asI lose focus on my phone. I hope they find their baby and I hope the other two girls are safe. But there is nothing I can do right now.
“Was that her?” Willa asks, her eyes wide and full of questions.
I nod. “She still thinks I know where her daughter is, and she thinks I hurt the twins last night. If she reports me for that too—” I cover my mouth, wishing it would stop the sobs from belting up my throat.
“She obviously knows you were released from the police station so why would she keep insisting you know something or had something to do with this?”
I stare toward my pair of fuzzy slippers off the side of my bed, watching the fuzz blur into the back of my mind. “Maybe there’s no one else to blame,” I say, realizing that all these arrows are wrongfully pointing in my direction because there is no other direction.
Willa sits down on the edge of the bed, breaking my gaze on the slippers. “This is seriously messed up, Hales. Have you called your parents? Do you want me to call them?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, feeling it create a wave of nausea in my stomach. “No, no. I don’t want to worry them. Once I have more information, it’ll be easier to explain. I hope.”
“True, but they might be able to help you find an attorney.” She thinks I do everything on my own as a form of defying dependencies. My parents are by no means wealthy.
“They can’t help with this.” They could tell me they’d help, and they would, but it wouldn’t be by hiring an attorney.
“Even if it’s to protect you? You’re their only daughter. I can’t imagine your dad denying you whatever you might need. You have the most loving parents, Haley. Don’t be above asking them, please.”
Willa only knows the front my parents put on for others. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t call them the kindest people they’ve ever met, but things aren’t always as they seem. I wish I could explain all that she doesn’t know about my parents, but now isn’t the time. It’s never the right time to open that can of worms.
“I’ll think about it,” I say, hoping to move away from the topic.
My phone rings again. Willa takes it from my hand and flips it over to see who’s calling. “It’s her again. My God,” she grumbles.
“No, I can’t—” I say, breathing heavily.
Willa ends the call and places the phone down on my nightstand. “Let her calls go to voicemail. You don’t owe her anything, okay?”
I stare at the phone as if it’s going to jump up and hit me in the face. “Yeah.”
“Okay, try to relax or—actually, let’s go get your car so we can cross that off the list of concerns. Then we’ll come home so you can take a shower and unravel a bit. This is all just too much at once.”
I nod. “Okay, yeah,” I say, trying to swallow against the growing lump in my throat.
