Page 14 of The Kidnapped

Hollis smiled as she sat across from the woman and said, “Thanks. And it was pretty bad.”

“It’s just a tea bag in water. How do they ruin that?”

“No idea,” Hollis replied. “Thank you for coming.”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Raleigh said.

“I thought it might be too late.”

“No, I’m up late most nights,” Raleigh told her. “I don’t sleep well these days.”

The waitress arrived with their coffees and a bowl full of individual creamers.

“I can imagine,” Hollis said because she didn’t know what else to say to that, knowing the cause of her insomnia.

“How’s your mom?” Raleigh asked.

“She’s sleeping right now, which, I’m pretty sure, is the only time she doesn’t feel pain, but she’s in good spirits.”

“Well, yeah. You’re finally home,” Raleigh replied.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” She shrugged a shoulder.

“This isn’t weird for you?”

“What?” Raleigh asked as she added a creamer to her coffee.

“Talking to me like this.”

“Why would it be?”

“I was a little girl kidnapped, and your daughter…”

Raleigh nodded as she stirred her coffee.

“It’s a little weird, yeah.”

“Do you get coffee with the others?”

“I’ve come here with Molly once or twice, but not really, no. She pitied me those nights. I broke down, and she needed to get home to her husband and kids, but she came here with me and bought me a coffee instead. She tries to look out for us.”

“Why me, then?”

“I don’t know,” Raleigh said. “You’re around my age. The rest are either much older or younger. Then, there’s the obvious.”

“What’s the obvious?”

“You might know what she’s going through,” Raleigh explained. “I know it’s a completely different circumstance. Her dad is an anonymous sperm donor who doesn’t even know she exists, so he didn’t take her. But someone else did, and you know what that’s like.”

“Oh,” Hollis said, adding creamer to her own coffee. “But you know I really don’t, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know I was taken. I just thought I was going on a road trip with my dad. My whole life, I thought my mom was dead, that I had no other family, and that I was living my life like every other person. I didn’t know what had happened until I saw my face on a book cover.”

“Kenna’s book, right?”

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