Page 16 of The Kidnapped

“VA?”

“Virtual assistant. I have a bunch of clients, and I take care of the things that they need done. It’s administrative, mostly, but it allows me to work from home, which was great when I had Eden because…” Raleigh faded out and looked down at her coffee.

“You could be with her all the time,” Hollis finished for her.

“Yes. But now, I can work from home still, and in between tasks, I can update the page I made for her and check for leads from people who might have seen her. It’s better than some desk job where I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Do you like what you do?” Hollis asked.

“It works for me. I’m no millionaire, but I make enough to support us and buy the house, which is a three-bedroom, so I have an office, and she has her own room.” She looked down again. “Had.”

“No, you got it right the first time,” Hollis told her. “She has a room. And it will be waiting for her when she gets home, Raleigh.” She reached over and took Raleigh’s hand, pulling it off the mug and sliding her own on top of it. “She’ll come home to you.”

“God, I hope so,” she replied, squeezing Hollis’s hand tightly.

CHAPTER 7

“I don’t know if I’ll be any good at this.”

“You don’t have to be good at anything,” Kenna told her. “You’re just going to tell your story, and we’ll get Eden’s picture out there to as many people as we can, okay? It’s about trying to get her back to you, not how good you are on camera. Be yourself. That’s important. The more genuine you are, the more people will respond to you and pay attention. If they pay enough attention, maybe they’ll remember something, or they’ll go on our website or Eden’s and look closer.”

“Right,” Raleigh replied as she sat in the comfortable chair on the studio stage.

They’d already gone to her house and had taken what they’d called B-roll footage of Eden’s bedroom, which had been hard enough. Raleigh didn’t want anyone in her daughter’s bedroom. She was afraid someone would touch something, move it out of place, and it would be different when Eden got home. What if Eden didn’t remember it then? What if she didn’t remember Raleigh?

“So,” Kenna said. “I’m just going to ask a question to get the conversation going. It’ll be about Eden and your life together. Nothing too hard and not about her kidnapping. Then, we’ll move into that, but we’ll take it at your pace. If you need a break, just tell me. If you want to stop altogether, that’s fine, too.”

Raleigh nodded and looked into the incredibly bright light over Kenna’s shoulder, which was a mistake. She squeezed her eyes shut, seeing only white now. Then, she opened them again and looked over Kenna’s other shoulder. That was when she saw her. Hollis was standing back behind two cameras. She gave Raleigh a sweet wave, and Raleigh smiled and waved back. Hollis nodded, and for some reason, Raleigh felt better.

“Are you ready?” Kenna asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

???

An hour later, Kenna said they had what they needed. Raleigh was grateful it was over. She’d managed to hold in her tears until about halfway through. Now, she wanted a bathroom and a mirror so she could clean herself up. This thick makeup they’d applied would take a shower to get off, but she could at least wipe her eyes and splash water on her face.

“Hey, you did great,” Hollis told her, finding her in the bathroom as Raleigh wiped her hands on paper towels.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t be there.”

“I asked Kenna if it was okay if I peeked in. She said it was fine. I figured, if you didn’t want me there, you would wave me off or something, but–”

“No, I’m glad you were there. It helped,” Raleigh interrupted. “Thank you.”

“For what? I didn’t do anything.”

“You were there,” she replied, opening the bathroom door for Hollis to walk out first. Raleigh followed her and added, “I haven’t had anyone there for me for a while. Well, there was someone for a bit, but she’s married and is with her own kid, so she can’t exactly drop everything when I break down or need to grab coffee in the middle of the night. I appreciate you showing up, I guess.”

“Well, I do work here now,” Hollis replied, trying to make light of it.

“Hey, you two,” Kenna said when she saw them. “Raleigh, you were great. When this episode airs, we’ll get leads. I never guarantee anything, but it’ll at least get people on Eden’s website, and maybe that’ll give you something.”

“I hope so,” Raleigh replied.

“We have quick turnarounds here, so this will be airing soon. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to it before the one-year anniversary. We usually try to time these things better, but we–”

“It’s okay. I’m not the only case you cover. There are thousands of missing kids out there,” Raleigh replied.

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