AllFreeNovel
Share Us
John couldn’t stand the mere idea; anger crossed his face the minute I mentioned it, and his voice dripped with fury, which surprised and scared me at the same time. My husband never raised his voice in my presence.
“You need to stop, Suzanne. Isla will always be your daughter. I gave her to you. The boy is none of your concern.” He walked off, leaving me standing and gaping after him until Isla came running to the kitchen, asking for her pancakes.
We never spoke of Diego again, and I decided to stop following his journey since he was such a sore subject for my husband.
Despite us making up…I couldn’t get his words out of my head.
About him giving Isla to me as if he had any right to give her to me.
The human mind is a tricky thing because, with time, I forgot about it even though it bothered me a lot, his kindness and attentiveness wiped away the horrible conversation, filling me with happiness.
Today, though, I remembered it again as the world around me shattered.
Isla wanted to celebrate her birthday at home, throwing a huge party for her friends, so while she was in school, I went to the basement to find some supplies.
Usually I never go there since John is scared about me slipping on the stairs and he hates for me to carry anything heavy.
Him being on a business trip made me go, though, and well, at first I was surprised how sturdy the stairs actually were and how clean the basement was.
I searched for all the old boxes when something snagged my attention.
A small silver box under one of the tables, hidden behind everything else, and without thinking, I grabbed it, flipping it open, only to gasp in horror when Isla's biological mother's pictures came to my view.
Black-and-white photos of her either strolling through the field wearing a long, white flannel dress with her hair cascading down her back or her sitting at the table gazing into the distance.
Her very pregnant belly peeking out from the dress, and the box fell on the ground as I kept going through the pictures, discovering more of her in different states of undress while always being stunningly beautiful and…sad.
Deep sadness etched in her eyes as she stared into the camera, her bare feet bruised.
The only thing playing in my mind was, how did John have all these pictures of her?
My heart hammered in my chest while my stomach flipped several times as I continued to go over them, horror sliding through my veins the further I looked as the girl seemed younger and younger on the pictures.
Until I found the one where she must have been around ten years old because she was a spitting image of Isla at that age. I sank to my knees, and with my trembling hands, I flipped it over to read what was written on it.
My girl on her first day.
And that was when her face clicked, all the puzzles floating in my head over the years, forming a clear yet hideous picture that made me gag. I grabbed the nearest bucket and vomited my breakfast into it.
Because her face…her face was all over the news more than twenty years ago. A little girl kidnapped during a family vacation, and the whole state searched for her relentlessly until someone found her clothes near the lake, and everyone assumed her body sank into the water.
They held a funeral, her family was devastated, and since they were rich, they opened a foundation in her name.
More vomit spilled into the bucket while tears streamed down my cheeks as the realization that my husband was a child predator hit me, someone who kidnapped a child and then…then raped her till she was sixteen and pregnant with his children.
All his various trips over the years, bite marks that he explained as minor accidents, and his amazing and generous mood after them…it was all done after he repeatedly hurt a child he stole.
Just thinking about someone hurting Isla like this…
I barfed some more before wiping away my mouth and scooting back, flashes of the past playing in my mind like a bad horror movie, shedding light on all the things I preferred to stay in the dark about.
How he bought the tickets for that trip fifteen years ago out of the blue, how he dragged us in the middle of nowhere to see the sunset, and how she drove there, her hands shaking and her horrible state.
Her fear of him and him commanding me to help her deliver the baby as if he knew what he was doing.
My God.
How many babies did she have to deliver before he decided he had enough of her?
