Page 93 of The Girl in the River

She’d tried to blot out the memory of what happened that night, and wanted to go to the police, but the threats stopped her. She’d just learned she was pregnant and known she had to leave town. Get away from Kevin. Protect her unborn child.

And now… she had a bad feeling she was going to die because of it.

Suddenly she heard voices outside. A man, the one who’d taken her. Then a gruffer voice.

“I want to see her now.”

Panic zinged through Mia. The other voice… one she’d never wanted to hear again.

Then the door opened and terror shot through her.

Kevin. He was behind this just as she’d feared.

“Hello, sweetheart,” he said with a menacing grin. “Did you really think you could leave me?”

“You did this? You had that man kidnap me and lock me in here?”

“Actually, that was my father’s doing. He wanted to clean up the mess you made. I just figured it out.” He chuckled. “And how perfect it was. To have you taken from your wedding just like you disappeared from ours.”

Don’t show your fear. He revels in it.

“Kevin, please. Don’t do this. Let me go home.”

“And where would that be?” His voice was icy cold. “To the home I built for us? To be with me – your husband?”

Mia choked back a cry. She had to stay calm. Appeal to his logical side.

“You know the reason I left,” she said. “I had to.”

“Why? Because I didn’t give you everything you wanted? Everything you could possibly need?” He walked toward her, a sinister look teeming in his brown eyes. “I gave you the boutique. And diamonds. And a car, a damn Mercedes. We had a bright future.” His voice turned to gravel. “And I gave you my love.Allmy love.”

“You don’t know what love is,” Mia said, unable to refrain from speaking her mind. “Your love is cruel, obsessive. To you, love means controlling someone, smothering them and locking them away.” She gestured around her. “Just like you’re doing now.”

His body went steely straight, hands fisting by his sides. “You humiliated me and let me believe you were dead. Do you have any idea how I felt thinking you’d drowned? Terrified that someone had abducted you? That someone might have tortured or killed you?” He paced to her, gripped her face in one hand and squeezed so hard she thought he was going to break her jaw. “You’re my wife. We said vows,” he shouted.

Mia whimpered at the pain shooting down her jaw.

“And now I find out we have a daughter that you kept from me. That you never told me about.” Rage made his face beet red. “What did you tell her about me, Jesse?”

Mia felt her world completely crumble. Dear God… he knew about Pixie. “I had to protect her from your family,” she whispered.

“From her own father?” He released her jaw so hard her head snapped back. “I would have given her everything,” he growled. “Iwillgive her everything. And now you and your lover will know exactly how I felt. You’ll know the agony of not seeing your child.”

Tears blurred her eyes. “No, Kevin. My daughter is safe with my sister and her husband. I made sure of that.”

A manic laugh boomed from him. He yanked his phone from his pocket, scrolled for a minute, then flipped it around and shoved it in her face.

She gasped as she realized what she was looking at. Her sister and brother-in-law’s obituary.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE

Kevin smiled at the horror on Jesse’s face.

No, the woman looking at him didn’t look like the woman he loved at all. She was Mia and Mia had killed his Jesse.

He should do as his father wanted when he’d told him where she was and just get rid of her…

But not now. Not yet. She had to suffer first. He reached for the door to leave.

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