by Berri Fox
“Are you and mommy fighting?”
“Guys, I’ll call later.” I wrap her in my arms and soothe her, but before I can hush her, a loud crash from outside causes both of us to stiffen.
After peering out the window and begging Ana to run to her room, I inch closer to inspect the source of the sound. Something tells me I’m about to be in serious danger, but I’m not going to go out without a fight.
Sixteen
Tiffany
How dare Rachel talk to me like that! I slam my phone onto my desk, surprised that the force doesn’t shatter the screen. That woman has no idea what it’s like to be a single mother. She has no idea what it’s like to lose the only person you’ve ever loved and be left to pick up all the pieces when they’re gone.
She’s a debt ridden twenty-five-year-old for fuck’s sake. What does she even know about responsibility to others? I have a child to care for. A child, whose needs I have put above my own for years. She has no idea what that kind of sacrifice means.
Even as I’m thinking all of this, there’s a small part of my mind that keeps trying to remind me that Rachel does know what it’s like to lose the important people in her life. Her father. Her aunt.
She’s struggling to keep the bookstore together so the girls she employs there don’t get left out in the cold with nowhere to go. In her young life, she’s given up a lot to take care of the people she loves.
I don’t want to think about that now, the need to be angry with her is too strong. Letting the anger gnaw and fester, I sit at my desk fuming as I scroll through email after email. The screen blurs in front of me, and I don’t really see the words glowing across the screen.
The door burst open and I jump as three women come barging in. Jordan is hurrying behind them. “You can’t go in there. You don’t have an appointment. You have to wait outside.”
They ignore his orders and charge towards my desk. One woman, her short dark locks sticking haphazardly out from under the beanie that covers her head, flops down in the chair across from me and swings her feet up on the desk. The heavy boots she wears thump across the wood as she crosses one ankle over the other.
“Excuse me! What do you think you’re doing?” I sneer at her.
She sniffs the air and glances around as if my office is far beneath her status of… what… band groupie fresh off the tour bus. The other girls stand in front of the desk looking down at me.
The honey blonde glares at me from behind thin framed glasses, one hand propped on her hip. The red head looks down her straight nose at me with fierce green eyes, ready for a fight. I stand from my chair, putting us closer to the same level.
“What exactly can I do for you ladies?” I ask casually, waving Jordan back. He huffs a little before stepping towards the door.
“We’re Rachel’s friends,” the red head says haughtily.
“I’m Abbie,” says the blonde. She hooks a thumb in the direction of the red head. “This is Jess, and this is Cody.” The one in the beanie sends a wry smirk my way.
“What exactly is it that you’re doing, messing with Rachel like that?” Demands Jess.
“I don’t see how my relationship with Rachel, or lack thereof, has anything to do with the three of you,” I say calmly, sitting back down. Effectively dismissing them, I add, “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“No,” Jess says. She looks at me and I notice a sheen of tears in her eyes. “Rachel is the nicest, most loving person I’ve ever met. She bends over backwards every damn day to take care of us and make sure we all have a place to go where we can feel safe.”
“You have no right to hurt her the way you have,” adds Abbie, placing one hand on Jess’s shoulder.
“We love her, and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure she knows how much we appreciate her.” Cody eyes me, gauging my reaction.
I eye them all speculatively, before letting my shoulders sag, and the weight of my actions come down on me. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt her. Rachel has been nothing short of amazing these last two weeks. She didn’t deserve the way I treated her.
I’m devastated by the pain that I’ve caused her, but before I can say any of this, my phone beeps with an incoming image. I glance down at the screen and my heart shatters in my chest. My breath hitches in my throat and a strangled sob burst from my lips.
“What the hell?” Asks one of the girls.
The number the text came from is unknown. The image is of Rachel and Ana. They look terrified. Rachel has her arms wrapped protectively around my baby girl and a pleading look in her eyes. Ana’s eyes are glistening with tears and her cheeks are read and streaked.
I can tell from the photo that they’re still at home. The kidnapper is there with them. He must have broken in somehow. How did he even know where we live?
My mind is a swirl of panic and questions as I dash from my office yelling for Jordan to call the police. The startled expression on his face barely registers as I charge past him. There’s no time to stop and explain.
The stampede of feet echoes behind me, but I don’t slow down. I race form the building slamming into my car as I struggle to get the door open and get in the seat. I barely get my seatbelt fastened before I’m careening from the parking lot like a crazed maniac.
My heart races in my chest as the street passes in a blur outside the windows. What if I’m too late? What if he hurts them before I get there? How will I ever survive losing Ana?
I don’t want to believe that’s a possibility. How could someone deliberately hurt a small child? My heart breaks at the thought. People do it all the time. Every day you read about that kind of thing in the news.
Even after losing Annabelle, the possibility of losing Anastasia never once occurred to me. Now, that’s the only thing I can focus on.
Seventeen
Rachel
I’m startled by the sudden crash, but tell myself not to be so silly. A racoon has probably gotten into the dumpster on the sidewalk outside the house.
I kiss Ana on her soft hair and tell her to stay put while I go to see what’s happening. I just reach the kitchen door when it’s suddenly flung open. The door handle hits my stomach and I’m pushed backwards into the wall, slumping down onto the floor.
Through my surprise I dimly register that Ana is screaming. I struggle back to my feet and come face to face with the guy from the bookstore. Fuck.
I make to charge at him but he’s clearly learned his lesson from my earlier attack, and I stop short as he waves a long sharp kitchen knife slowly in front of my face. It catches the light, glinting dangerously.
He walks slowly towards me, pushing me backwards. I hear Ana whimpering behind me, and past the guy’s shoulder I see a smashed window where he must have broken in.
I hit the back wall hard and reach down grab Ana’s hand, trying not to look away from the man in front of us. She’s sniffing and whimpering and I see his eye twitch in annoyance. I’m suddenly terrified that he might hurt her to get her to be quiet.
No. Nothing is going to happen to this little girl on my watch.
I crouch down beside her and pull her into my side, covering her face with my arm. I rock her gently, trying to calm her down.
“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay, I promise,” I whisper to her.
“You should relax, girlie. I’m not gonna hurt you… yet.” He winks at me and my stomach churns.
“Please don’t hurt her,” I whisper, but it only makes him laugh.
“Sit there and keep quiet. You’ll both be fine as long as you do as I say.”
He spots my cell phone on the coffee table and grabs it. He takes some photos of me and Ana huddled together in the corner, humming as he fiddles with the phone.
I gauge the distance to the back door and wonder if we can make it, but dismiss the thought almost immediately. He is closer to Ana than he is to me, and if I try to pull her up and run the knife will catch her almost immediately.
“Done!” He
proclaims proudly, and then stares at me.
He seems to be waiting for me to ask him what he’s doing, so I oblige. I put on my best damsel in distress voice, hoping he won’t see us as any kind of threat. Ana is curled into my side, still shaking with sobs but mercifully silent.
“I sent that bitch Tiffany Wake some photos of her darling little girl over here. That should get her back here soon enough. She’s gonna learn what happens when you mess with good people, when you make good people angry.”
I wisely decide not to object to his insistence that he is a good person. Instead I try to engage him in small talk, hoping to find some common ground or get through to him. He doesn’t rise to it.
Next, I try to reason with him but that only seems to make him angrier. He starts pacing across the living room, muttering about how he’s going to teach Tiffany a lesson she’ll never forget. He’s too enraged to take any notice of what I say.
I sniff a little and try to keep myself from crying. I don’t want Ana to see that I’m upset and get even more scared. I wonder if I can grab my phone off the table without him seeing but he turns around and, reading my mind, picks it up and puts it in his pocket.
Time crawls past, and I try to keep Ana as still as possible so that he doesn’t notice us too much. I wonder if Tiffany has called the police, or if he sent her a message saying that if she does so she’ll be sorry.
Ana fidgets beside me. I hold her firmly by the arms to keep her sitting down but she squirms and wriggles. I’m worried she’ll wriggle free of my grasp and try to run from the room.
“Hey, excuse me? She needs to go to the bathroom.” I try to attract his attention and he slowly turns around.
“So?”
“Please, just let me take her to the bathroom. You really want to be standing in a room reeking of piss?”
He stares at me for a long moment, and I try to make us look as least intimidating as possible. Finally, he gestures for me to get up.
I pull Ana into my arms and walk as directed to the bathroom.
“I’m right out here. Don’t try anything you’ll regret.” He warns me, and I nod slightly.
We enter the bathroom and I lock the door. I put Ana down and scan the room, my eyes falling on the tiny window high on the back wall. It might be a squeeze for me, but I can boost Ana out, no problem.
I crouch down and put my finger on my lips, signaling for her to be quiet. Ana nods seriously, her eyes wide with fear.
I unlock the window and open it as wide as it will go. It’s high up, but I can manage to get Ana up there and I just hope she doesn’t hurt herself falling out on the other side. I don’t have any other choice though.
I crouch down next to her again, put my lips right up against her ear and whisper the plan to her. “Listen to me, Ana, you have to be super brave and do as I say. I’m going to push you out of that window okay?”
She shakes her head violently, and goes to speak, but I put my hand over her mouth in warning.
“Ana I’m sorry but you have to. Tuck you head in when you roll, like you do in gymnastics, and when you get up you run as fast as you can to the nice neighbors across the street and tell them what’s happening. The ones with the new puppy, you remember them?”
She nods, crying now, and I scoop her up and stand on the rim of the bath. I’ve just got her up onto the windowsill when I knock a bottle of shampoo onto the floor with a clatter and we both freeze.
There’s a moment of silence, and then the guy starts banging on the door and screaming. He knows.
I panic and push Ana harder. “Go, sweetheart you have to go!” I urge her.
She whimpers but manages to get out of the window until she’s clinging to my arm and dangling outside.
The door starts to buckle from the man’s weight against it, and I wish more that anything else that I could just tell Tiffany how I feel before this madman gets to me.
I wish I could tell her that I love her.
Eighteen
Tiffany
I screech through three stop signs and a red light, barely even noticing them. I’ll be in trouble if a cop sees me, but there’s nothing I care about more than getting home and saving Ana and Rachel.
“Jesus!” Cody screams from the passenger seat, clinging to the door as I round a corner, almost colliding with the car coming out of it. The other driver lays on the horn, but I don’t slow down.
We skid to a halt outside my house and I mount the car onto the pavement. I don’t even turn off the engine, already opening the door before we even fully stop. I see a couple of curtains twitching in the neighbor’s houses but make a break for my own.
My stomach lurches when I see Ana dangling from the window. I feel sick and stumble, but Abbie’s hand on my arm steadies me. We rush forwards and I manage to catch Ana’s swinging legs.
“Baby it’s mommy, it’s okay, mommy’s here!”
When she hears my voice, Ana stops struggling and drops down into my arms. We fall to the ground and I squeeze her hard. We’re both sobbing now, and I push her hair out of her face and look at her hard.
“Are you okay? Ana, are you hurt?” I urge her, and my mind fills with relief when she shakes her head.
“Rachel,” she whimpers, pointing to the house. Just then, there’s an almighty crash and someone screams.
No, not someone. Rachel.
“Go, I’ve got her,” Jess grabs Ana and pulls her away from the house. She clings to Jess, sobbing hysterically. Jess already has her phone out and is dialing 911.
I turn to the other girls, who all nod to me, and then race into the house.
The kitchen is a mess of glass and broken crockery, and my beautiful big window overlooking the park is smashed. We follow the noise through the living room and into the entry hall.
A man is pounding and kicking at the door to the bathroom, yelling in rage and slamming his body against it. The door is starting to buckle under his weight, and I hear Rachel screaming from the other side.
“Hey! You fucking dick, what do you think you’re playing at?” Okay so it’s not my greatest plan ever, but I have to get him away from Rachel.
As the intruder turns to face us, I gasp. I recognize him and my heart constricts in my chest. Todd Wilson, one of the staff members I had to let go when the company hit a rough patch almost a year ago.
I know there’s bad blood and I’ve even seen the interviews some of my ex-employees have given to the daily rags who thrive on sad faces and sensationalist gossip, but I never thought that someone could be so angry with me that they would hurt my family.
Todd lunges forward and as I see the steely glint of metal in his hand I realize he has a knife. I duck beneath and around him, and he stumbles slightly in surprise. As he turns to face me again, I’m ready.
I channel all my rage and my terror for my daughter and the woman I love and punch him hard in the jaw. He staggers backwards but Cody is waiting for him and brings her knee up sharply into the small of his back. He cries out in pain and drops the knife.
Jess quickly kicks the knife away as Cody brings Todd down and then sits on his back to keep him there. His screams are muffled by the thick carpet in the hall and Jess glares smugly at him.
I turn and knock softly on the bathroom door.
“Rachel? Rachel, it’s Tiffany, it’s okay to come out. Are you okay, Rachel, I’m so sorry?”
I’m babbling into the wood of the door when I hear the familiar sound of the lock being pulled back and Rachel rushes into my arms. She’s sobbing and I cling to her, needing her to know how I feel.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry and I love you and I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry and I love you too and I thought I’d never get to tell you how much I love you because I thought I was going to die.”
Our apologies run over each other, loud and messy. Rachel tries to draw back to look at me, but I refuse to let go.
“No Tiffany, listen. I got Ana out through the window but I don’t
know where she is. I told her to run, we have to find her.”
I shake my head, still not loosening my grip. “No, no, it’s okay Rachel. She’s outside.”
“We pulled up as she was getting out. She’s with Abbie now,” Jess adds, rubbing Rachel’s back soothingly.
“I love you so much. You mean so much to me,” I whisper to Rachel, and she laughs weakly.
“I love you too. You have no idea how much I love you and Ana.”
“Oh yay, this means I have two mommies!”
I turn around sharply at Ana’s voice, afraid that she’s escaped Abbie, but breathe a sigh of relief when I spot the police officers swarming into the house. Abbie is behind them, holding a squirming Ana.
The police take over from Cody and drag Todd off the ground and into the waiting police van. I reach out to Ana and scoop her into my arms. Rachel wraps her arms around us both and kisses Ana softly on the head.
“We’re going to need you all to stick around to be interviewed,” once of the officers announces to the bookstore crew, who all nod seriously.
“Sit down. I’ll call somebody to fix that window,” Jess orders, nudging me and Rachel to the couch.
Abbie has already located the broom and starts sweeping up the broken glass and crockery. I try to object and tell her she doesn’t need to, but she just grins at me and carries on tidying.
After Cody gives her interview, she finds our takeout menu drawer and asks Ana what she wants. Cody orders food for all of us from two different places and sees the officers out when they finish.
I huddle on the sofa with my girls as the others bustle around us. Ana has finally calmed down and sits quietly in the middle. Rachel grips my hand so tight it seems like she’ll never let me go.
I sigh deeply, and hope she never does.
Nineteen
Rachel