Page 11 of Mia Amata

“She is 23, abused severely for five years by her husband who is a cop. She is approximately six weeks pregnant. Cannot be moved for a couple of days to recover from her last beating, but should be moved soon, before she gets too far along in her pregnancy. She wants to keep the baby.”

“Husband is a cop? Anything on the news yet?”

“No,” Lauren said. “I expect that it will be tomorrow unless he is trying to hide something.”

“Give me details on how this situation occurred, so I know what we are dealing with,” he said.

“I found her throwing up, almost passing out in the grocery store parking lot this morning. Her face was badly bruised, it was obvious she was in an abusive relationship. I had her put her purse, which contained all her ID, a grocery list, car keys, cell phone, and money back in the car. We, my daughter and I, left her there and walked to my van. We put my groceries in the back, climbed in, and opened the door on the passenger side back seat.”

“She walked down a couple rows of vehicles, crossed over, then back to my van out of view of any cameras of the store. She got to my van, climbed in, and lay down on the back floor. I auto-shut the door behind her. She covered up with a blanket, pulled a couple of bags of groceries on top of her, and hid. We then drove to the courthouse, where her husband actually could have been and then made another stop at the drugstore.”

“She stayed hidden at all stops. She did not come out from under the blanket until we pulled into my garage, shutting the garage door. From there, she was able to go into the basement apartment in my home, having not been seen by any neighbors.”

“Good. So her car will be found in the parking lot of the store with all of her stuff in it. I can work from there. Do you have any thoughts about where to go from here?”

“Nothing other than my daughter mentioned that maybe we can get her a job where she works remotely from home since she is pregnant. Maybe something she can start here if she will be here for an extended period of time and then can move with her, so she has a source of income when she moves.”

The man on the other end replied, “I can definitely work with that. I have a couple of contacts that I have worked with recently that can probably help with that. Do you know if she has any skills that will help?”

Lauren sighed, “I really doubt it. She has not had any sort of life for five years.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he replied. “I will work on getting her some funds to move on, a job, along with a mode of transportation. Call me back tomorrow for an update.” There was a click on the line and Lauren put the phone down on her desk.

Lauren sat at her desk staring at her computer for a few minutes. She picked up her phone again, making another call. “Hello?” another female voice replied.

“It’s me,” Lauren said. “I need a favor.”

“Yes?” was the reply.

“There is a missing person case. The car left in the grocery store parking lot today. Can you keep me posted on the situation?”

“I can do that,” the female voice replied. “Nothing yet.”

“Thank you,” Lauren replied, ending the call. There were no more calls she could make at this time, so she took her cell phone and left the office.

Eva was in her room, studying. Lauren knocked quietly on her door. “Come in,” Eva said.

“I don’t want to disrupt your studies, but we should probably talk about a schedule for the next few days that would allow one of us to be here with Mattie.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom, I have it covered already,” Eva replied. “I have arranged with my professors to do my studies at home for the next couple of days. This is an easy thing for me since Covid.”

Lauren walked to her daughter and gave her a hug. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“I’m sure, Mom. There seems to be a trust between Mattie and me. It just makes sense for me to be the one to stay home. I just told my professors that I pulled a muscle, and the doctor stated would take a day or two of rest before I can attend classes in person. They stated they are fine with that as long as I attend online and keep up with homework. You need to be able to go to work. I will text Audra and see if she can help with a note for school stating I pulled a muscle that I can submit to the dean.”

Lauren gave Eva another hug, “I love you, honey. I’m sure Audra can help with that. You may have to go in for an appointment to make it legit, but I think that is a great solution. I know that Mattie is more comfortable with you than me. Also, you can study at home, but I can’t work at home.”

Eva hugged her back. “I love you too, Mom. This just made sense to me. I am happy to be able to help Mattie through this process. I couldn’t help much the last time since I was so young then, but I like the fact that I can do something this time that actually means something and will hopefully make a difference for Mattie.”

Lauren was so touched by Eva’s passion for helping Mattie that she couldn’t speak. She turned, walking out, to her bedroom. She was tired, it had been a long day.

Chapter 7

I woke up at 4:30 am out of habit. I sat up in bed thinking I needed to get up and make breakfast. That was the one thing that I did every day that was never put on the daily LIST. I fixed breakfast while he made THE LIST. I got to where I had perfected his breakfast during the time he made THE LIST which meant the beatings that I suffered were never over his breakfast.

He wanted the same thing every day at the same time. I did have an alarm set for 4:45 every morning, but I never allowed it to go off, always waking up before it went off. The first beating of the day would occur if he heard my alarm because that meant I was lazy. I have been ‘lucky’ in the fact that this beating had not occurred in four years. I realized that I did not have to make breakfast for him today, so I tried to lie down and go back to sleep.

After about 45 minutes, I decided sleep was not going to happen right now. I figured I would go out to find some breakfast for myself. In the kitchen, I found some cereal in the pantry that sounded really good. I was never allowed to eat cereal, I was always made to eat Allen’s favorite breakfast, eggs, sausage, toast, orange juice, and coffee every morning. I poured some cereal in a bowl and added the milk, eating this while I brewed a pot of coffee.

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