“How can you say that to me?” I grit my teeth tight.
Anita shrugs. “I guess I’m tired of pretending. The truth is, Andrew was the love of my life, but he betrayed me. He hurt me.”
“He was my husband, Anita. You had an affair with my husband.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “You took him from me.”
What hurts the most is that I never knew Andrew. He was an illusion.
Anita says nothing for a long time. When she speaks, she’s her old self again.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I just...I lost control. I just felt so alone. It was painful. I wanted to feel better. Andrew made me feel like I was special.”
“Destroying my life made you feel better?” I blink away tears and kiss the top of my daughter’s head. “Thanks to you, Lea has to grow up without her father.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I wish I could turn back time and do things differently.” Tears are coursing down her cheeks now. “I did terrible things.”
I wipe away my own tears. “You didn’t have to kill him. You didn’t.” I push myself to my feet. If I had known about Andrew’s affair, I would probably have left him, but for my daughter’s sake, I wouldn’t have wished death on him.
“I was pregnant,” she continues and my stomach drops. “I was pregnant and he didn’t care. He begged me to get rid of my baby. He wanted to raise a baby with you, but he wanted mine to die.”
I sink back into the chair. “You were pregnant?”
She nods. “I lost the baby a week after I found out. The night Andrew died, I told him about the miscarriage. He didn’t care. He was relieved. He said now we could make a clean break. I lost it. I never planned on killing him. It just happened.” She leans forward. “I’m sorry. I really am. That’s why I did everything to make it up to you. I helped you care for Lea. I helped you find her. I was there for you when you were grieving.”
“Yes, but only because you wanted to ease your own guilt.” Feeling suddenly sick, I rise to my feet again. “I have to go. I won’t be visiting you again.”
“Fine, go to hell.” She jumps to her feet. “I don’t need you. You’re not the person I thought you were.”
“I could say the same about you,” I throw over my shoulder and walk away.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” she shouts behind me.
I turn back to face her. “You’re right, I have no idea who you are, and I really don’t care.”
I continue walking without looking back. I can’t bear to look at her again.
Inside my car, I resist the urge to break down. Lea is awake now. Instead of crying, she smiles at me when I put her in her car seat. I thank God every day that she’s back in my life. Unlike before, I now cherish every moment as a mother. Finding out about Andrew and Anita’s affair crushed me, and I have cried myself to sleep for many nights, but Lea gives me the courage to go on. I’m a better mother to her now than before. I’ll never let her feel my pain again.
The healing process might take time, but we will get there. To spend as much time as I can with her, I have started my own business as an event planner while blogging on the side. I sold the house I had shared with Andrew and donated all his belongings. Lea and I moved into our new home only last week. Now we can start creating new memories.
Sliding behind the wheel, I switch on the radio to listen to the twelve o’clock news, but my phone rings. It’s Officer Randall.
“Madison has been found,” he says as soon as I answer. “She was boarding a plane in Canada with a fake passport.”
“Thank God she’s finally captured.” My shoulders sink with relief. In my mind, as long as Madison was out there somewhere, Lea was still in danger.
Marcella and several other people connected to her crimes are already behind bars. I was shocked to hear that Madison was in fact Marcella’s daughter.
“Are you ready for more good news?” he asks.
“Yes, please.” I start the car. “I could use some right now.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” I say. It was a long process for the authorities to match parents with the missing babies. Unfortunately, since Marcella and Madison have been running their operation for two years and have kidnapped babies from most states in the country, there are mothers out there who will never be as lucky as I am.
“How have you been holding up after everything that happened?”
“I’m taking it one day at a time. That’s all I can do.”
“I suppose you’re right about that. Well, I wish you and your daughter an easier life. And don’t be a stranger around town, all right?”
“Thank you, Officer.”
I hang up the phone just as we’re approaching a red traffic light. Once I bring the car to a stop, I glance behind at Lea, who gives me a big smile.
If anything will get me through the next few months, it’s her smile.
It’s what I hold on to in the following weeks when I try to deal with the pain my husband left behind, the pain of betrayal. It’s what I hold on to months later when it comes out that Anita is actually Camille Nielsen, a woman wanted for the murder of her husband, Greg Nielsen. She had been the abuser, not a battered wife as she had claimed. She murdered her husband after he asked for a divorce.
After the shocking news about Anita’s past surfaced, Officer Randall admitted to me that the reason they needed to question her again was also because they suspected she had something to do with Andrew’s death. They had found phone records that proved she had spoken to him half an hour before he died. He had not wanted to tell me until they had found more proof. He never expected her to confess.
Andrew had rejected her and she killed him, just like her first husband.
After everything that happened, it’s hard for me to move on with my life, but Lea gives me the strength to try.
Instead of being a burden, my baby turns out to be the person that holds me together when everything around me is falling apart.
One smile, one kiss, one touch from her is a promise that everything will be all right. And it does get better for us.
Four years after Andrew’s death, I allow myself to trust again, and fall back in love with Rob Brendel, the man I loved first. As it turns out, he had only broken off our engagement because Clayton had warned him to stay away from me, threatening to kill him if he didn’t.
A lot of tears have been shed, a lot of blood has been spilled, but in the end, we arrive exactly where we’re destined to be.
THE END
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Other Books by L.G. Davis
Don’t Blink
The Midnight Wife
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Title Page
Copyright Page
The Stolen Breath
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapte
r 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Other Books by L.G. Davis
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