Page 115 of Silent Betrayal

“I brought you back to Mary, thinking we could make it work. She’d have Simon, and I’d have you. But she didn’t want to keep you, and I refused to give you away. You were mine, and I knew I had to keep you safe. But I didn’t exactly know how to raise a baby. She finally agreed to let us stay if I would agree to bewithher.” He swallows heavily and I can see the disgust on his face before he relaxes his expressions and looks back up at me.

“I did that for you, honey.” I try not to cringe thinking about all the messed up decisions he’s made for my benefit.

“Your brother grew jealous of how much time I spent with you and his desperate need to please me grew annoying. Between Mary’s desire for me and Simon’s annoying tendencies, I started to drink. In hindsight, I should have taken you away years earlier. But I was weak. By the time you were old enough that I knew I could raise you on my own, I was too much of a drunk.”

“I tried to get sober so I could take you away, but you went missing when I was in rehab. I tried to find you, but I couldn’t figure out whereshe took you. A few years later, when Simon found me, I thought we’d be able to find you together. But he told me Mary had kicked him out and ran again. Now I know he was lying, he wanted to keep you for himself, and away from me. He was a jealous little pedophile,” he spits out.

He’d been in contact with Simon? A chill goes up my spine and I shiver, the unease growing stronger the more he talks. I want to ask him questions but decide to let him keep talking as he seems to be revealing more truths now than he ever has before.

“He helped me look for you. He even found girls who looked like you… but none of them were a substitute for the real you.”

My blood runs cold and I try to keep the shocked expression from my face. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?

“Every few months he’d bring me another girl, but they were never good enough, they were neveryou. You understand?”

No.I don’t understand any of this.

“Dad… did you know that Simon had been raping and killing those women?”

“Oh, honey, you need to understand. He would do anything to please me, and I just wanted you. He tried to find substitutes, but they always turned out to be inadequate, flawed, so I would let him have his fun with them, then I’d dispose of them.”

I can’t stop the gasp that escapes me.

“I can’t have inferior copies of you out there. There is only one of you, the rest are just… distractions.”

What the actual hell.My entire body trembles with fear. He’s been working with Simon this entire time. Simon didn’t kill those women,hedid. I think he might be more messed up than Simon was. Killing them just because they weren’t me?

Oh my god!The thought sends a wave of nausea through me and I quickly bend forward, puking up my meal on the floor at his feet. I can’t stop retching and I fear he’s going to punish me, but his hand quickly comes up to stroke down my back as he pulls my hair back.

“My poor little girl is sick. Don’t worry, daddy will take care of you.”

Staring at the chain anchored to the bedroom floor, I wonder, how the hell am I going to get out ofhere?

Chapter fifty-two

“Ifeel useless standing around here!” Max yells, knocking a chair over in his agitation.

“I know, we all do. But we aren’t going to find her driving around aimlessly,” I tell him for the tenth time since she was taken yesterday. None of us have slept. The chief told us to go home, but we didn’t see a point in it. There was nothing any of us other than Ben could do from home. And being here meant he could work with the police team.

I’m trying to hold it together for the sake of our family, but the truth is, I feel like I’m dying on the inside. I don’t know what we’ll do if we don’t get her back. But we won’t stop until we find her. We just need some sort of lead. A clue that will give us a sense of direction.

The car had no plates, and they were only able to use traffic cams to follow him to the edge of the town. Then he vanished.

“Holy fucking shit, I have something!” Ben yells, gaining everyone’s attention as we instantly crowd around him.

He points at the screen where there is a driver’s license displayed with Paul’s face.

“John Donovan,” Gideon reads in confusion.

“It’s a fake alias he must be using!” Ben says excitedly.

“Fuck, great work, Ben,” I tell him with a squeeze on his shoulder.

“We’re on it,” the police tech says, diving in to see what he can find on that name.

Ben tilts his head up to me. “I hope it’s enough.”

“It’s more than we had five minutes ago, brother. You’re helping more than any of us.”

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