Page 61 of Husband Missing

Josie’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket with a call.

“Roe,” the guard said firmly. “Calm down or this visit is over.”

Her cries ceased. She returned her hands to the table, but tears kept streaming down her face.

Josie’s phone continued to ring silently, buzzing against her rear end. Every inch of her body hummed with anxiety, but she kept her expression blank, her hands steady, as she took it from her pocket.

Thirty-nine and half hours.

It wasn’t Heather. It was the caller from last night. Pain pierced her heart, daggerlike and merciless. Mentally, she caught the arterial bleeding in a jar and locked it away. It had to wait. She couldn’t break right now. Wouldn’t.

Swiping the decline icon, she took a couple of deep breaths. She needed her four-seven-eight breathing right now but that wasn’t going to happen in this room. Last round of questions. The most important ones.

“You met your daughter.” Josie pulled up the side-by-side photo of Lila, young and old, and turned her phone toward Roe. “She pretended to be a reporter so that she could meet with you.”

Roe’s eyes bulged as she took in the photo.

“Did she tell you who she really was?”

She shook her head. No.

The words, “What did she want?” were on the tip of Josie’s tongue but she held them back. Yes or no questions. How would she narrow down what Lila came to talk about?

“Did she ask you about the babies?”

Yes.

“Did she ask about herself?”

Yes.

“Did she ask about her father?”

Yes.

“Did you know the father?”

No response.

“Was there more than one? More than one man?”

Nothing.

Josie took another approach. “The man who hurt you before Lila came out of your belly, did you meet him in the woods?”

A nod.

It wasn’t Roe’s father, then. A hunter, like she and Trinity had thought. “Did he ever meet Lila?”

No.

“Did he know about Lila?”

Roe didn’t respond.

“Did he hurt you before the other babies came out of your belly?”

A slow nod. Fear crept into Roe’s eyes. That trauma was still alive and well and she was locked inside her mind with it. Anger welled again as Josie imagined Roe, young and alone, isolated from everyone but her father, who had betrayed her in the worst way. She’d worked up the courage to leave, hoping to disappear to a place remote enough that he might not find her, only to fall victim to another monster. Roe had never been given the tools to fight back. Hell, she’d never even been taught basic things in life or anything that might have helped her become more than prey.

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