by Nicole Fox
He pressed his lips together and returned to watching Opal. “I can see why that might worry you. I don’t know if the real reason is any better.”
“Try me.” This should be good. What excuse could he possible give that would make him seem like less of a pervert?
“Yesterday, after I met you two for the first time, I just thought you were so beautiful. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. The fair was a complete coincidence. I told you I work around the corner from here. I’m the manager at a restaurant supply store, and one of the vendors placed a last minute emergency order for cups. I dropped off the order and was shocked to see you in the crowd. I guess I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to be closer to you to get to know you. Then today… I was hoping you’d come outside to play, and I have a view of the playground from my office window. So, I decided to come in to work on a few things, and sure enough, you came out to play, and I came down to make my move.”
Vanessa slid her eyes to him. He gave her a half smile in return.
“What’s your move?” she asked.
“Well. I was hoping to take you out. To get to know you instead of acting like a stalker.”
“I would prefer if you stopped acting like a stalker.” She returned her gaze to Opal. He wanted to take her out? Like a date? Her heart raced at the thought. Of both going out on a date, which she hadn’t done for years, and the thought of being so close to Hunter. But could she really trust him? Was his story the truth? Probably no one would pretend to do something so creepy as watch for her to show up in the park, so maybe he was telling the truth. Either way, was it a good idea to be dating?
Dating would cause her to be distracted. To have to leave Opal with a babysitter somewhere for at least a few hours. It was hard enough leaving her in her school classroom for hours, out of sight. Knowing she was just down the hall, and having the opportunity to look in on her throughout the day was all that got Vanessa through it. But being out with a man for several hours was a different story.
And of course, her biggest problem was trust. How could she be alone with him like that when she didn’t know him? Anything could happen. The whole dating process suddenly seemed like a very scary thing. How did women do it? Be alone with a strange man for hours? Get in his car and drive away? It was a wonder more women weren’t attacked in that situation. It seemed to her like the perfect recipe for disaster.
“What do you say? Can I take you to dinner some night?” he asked.
Vanessa met his eyes, ready to turn him down. But one glance in his sparkling blues and she couldn’t look away. “I… haven’t dated in a long time.”
“Then now’s the time to start.”
“Maybe it is.”
# # #
Hunter didn’t miss the fact that Vanessa had neither turned him down, nor agreed to go out with him. He would take this as a good sign. She was clearly reserved about dating, and he had managed to make himself look like a stalker. He hoped his cover up came off as genuine and maybe even endearing. The lonely bachelor watching out his window for the beautiful woman who lived down the street to appear. She seemed to buy it, and it wasn’t so far from the truth anyway.
He decided to let the date thing hang for now. He’d give it some time, then act like she’d said yes and pick a date and time. Right now, he grew quiet and observed her. She watched Opal like a hawk. If she did look away from her daughter, it wasn’t more than a moment or two, then she was right back. It seemed like more than the typical watchful mother would do. The other parents in the park held conversations and chatted, looking away plenty from their children, though they certainly kept looking back to make sure they were okay.
Hunter decided to take things up a notch, and Opal provided the perfect opportunity. Her ball bounced over toward him and he grabbed it up.
“Wanna play a little catch?” he asked, throwing the ball to her.
“Okay.”
He got up and moved to be several feet from her, what he thought was a good throwing distance for a child. He gestured for her to throw the ball back to him. As they tossed it back and forth, he moved them slowly farther away from Vanessa. Each time he moved to catch the ball, he strategically positioned himself farther away, making it look like just part of the game. When they were far enough away, he started talking to her.
“So, how do you like school?” he asked.
“Good.”
“Yeah? What’s your favorite subject?” He tossed the ball to her.
“I guess reading. I like to read.” She threw the ball back.
“Nice throw. Do you have many friends?”
“Not really. Not yet, but I’m trying to make friends. My mommy said friends are important.”
“They are. So, you haven’t lived here very long, have you?”
“No. Just a few weeks now.”
“How do you like your new apartment? Is it bigger than where you used to live?”
“No.” She shook her head and threw the ball back the farthest she had yet. “It’s much smaller. I used to live in a really big house.”
“Oh, I see.” He had to ask these questions carefully. If he asked the wrong way, he might alert her that he was trying to get information. But he had to keep her talking, too. “What was your room like?”
“It was all purple. That’s my favorite color. And it had a purple rug and a big kitty cat painted on one wall, and it said ‘Opal’ on the other wall and my bed had a curtain that was sparkly, and I had all my stuffed animals in a hammock that hung from the ceiling. I even had my own desk for doing homework.”
He didn’t miss that she’d slipped up and used her real name. “You don’t have any of that now?”
“No.” She looked sad for a moment as she caught the ball.
“Especially not ‘Opal’ painted on your wall.”
She looked at him with wide eyes. The ball slipped from her hands and she looked over at Vanessa with a fearful expression.
When Vanessa saw it, she jumped to her feet. “Katrin, come on! We need to get going.”
Opal ran to her, and they hurried inside. Vanessa stopped to wave at Hunter, then disappeared inside the building. He walked over to where Opal had been and picked up her ball.
He considered as he returned to his car. Opal had suddenly become very afraid when he used her real name. Vanessa had seen one glimpse of fear in her daughter and took off fast. Could this mean Jeremy was telling the truth after all? Was Opal afraid of what her mother would do to her if she found out Opal had slipped up and used the wrong name?
Or could it be that Vanessa had placed so much importance on their fake names to keep them safe and hidden from Jeremy that Opal was reacting to that fear? It could easily go either way.
Hunter reached his car, which he now always parked close to the restaurant supply company he claimed to work for. He tossed the ball in the backseat and drove back toward his hotel.
He still didn’t have enough information to know for sure. What he was sure of was that Vanessa was not the obvious monster Jeremy had made her out to be, though that didn’t mean she wasn’t still abusing Opal. She had chosen to run instead of calling the authorities to have Jeremy taken away. That made her look guilty. She was the one who filed for divorce, and he knew that many times when women were being abused, they rarely left. Had Vanessa just gotten the courage that most women couldn’t, or was she running and had demanded a divorce because Jeremy threatened to turn her in and take Opal away from her?
He needed to spend more time with them, needed to get to know them more. He thought things had gone well with Opal. She shared a little with him and hadn’t seemed too hesitant about it. Vanessa, though, was something like a closed book he’d need to carefully peel open. Hopefully she drank when they went out, and he could get her buzzed and talking. A simple trick, but it always worked. She certainly didn’t seem to be coke-snorting junkie Jeremy claimed she was.
He’d just have to convince Jeremy that this was all part of the process. Because the
re was no way he was going through with the hit until he knew for sure. And if Vanessa was anything short of the monster Jeremy claimed, he’d flip sides in a second and protect her and Opal from a horrible ex who was trying to have Vanessa killed for who knew what real reasons.
He turned onto the street where his hotel was, and as he approached, he noticed a black van that seemed out of place. The license plate was out of state, the back windows were all blacked out, and it sat right in front of the hotel entrance. It looked an awful lot like a surveillance vehicle, though not a very good one if he picked it out so easily.
Maybe the distrust of his employee went both ways. Jeremy might be having him trailed. He might be suspicious that Hunter was having doubts. And that made Jeremy seem highly guilty.
Chapter Six
Vanessa
Vanessa ran to her window when she got Opal inside, but it seemed he had already gone. She didn’t know what she expected to see him do, but it felt important that she watch him for some reason. When she felt sure he had gone, she turned to Opal.
“What happened?” she asked.
Opal lifted one shoulder and wouldn’t look at Vanessa.
“Did Hunter say something to you?”
“He just asked me about school and stuff. And our old house.”
“Okay.” Vanessa sat down, trying to understand what had happened to make her daughter look so afraid of him. “What sort of things did he ask?”
“What my favorite subject is and how I like our new apartment.”
“He asked about our new apartment? How did he know it was new?”
“Umm.” Opal looked at her mother, the fear still in her eyes. “I don’t know. He asked if I had a lot of friends and when I said no, he asked if we lived here long and I said no.”
“Okay…” Well, that was the truth and there wasn’t denying that. Anyone at the school would know they were new to the area. “What else?”
“I think I said…” She mumbled something that Vanessa couldn’t make out, and she started crying, which made it even harder to understand her.
“Calm down, sweetie.” She held her close and stroked her hair. “What did you say?”
“My name,” she finally mumbled.
“Which name?”
“Opal.”
Vanessa tried not to react, but her heart tightened. Of all people, Hunter and his mysterious nature was the last person she wanted Opal to slip up to. Someone at school might have blown it off or let it go. But Hunter might have been actually trying to get information from Opal. And that made everything worse.
“It’s okay,” Vanessa said. “It’s done now and there’s nothing we can do about it. If it comes up again, just tell him it’s your pretend name.”
“Are they going to take me away now?” She choked out a sob and squeezed her arms tighter around her mother.
“No, baby. I won’t ever let that happen.”
“But you said—”
“I know, but it’ll be okay. I promise. We just have to make sure we keep using our fake names from now on.”
“I will, I promise. I’m sorry.”
Vanessa smoothed down her hair and wiped her eyes. “It’ll be okay.”
But all that day, Vanessa was plagued by thoughts of Hunter. He kept showing up out of nowhere, and it was starting to bother her. But it was also exciting her. The two ideas tore at her heart. Her need to keep Opal safe and hidden versus her need to feel wanted and desired. They took turns winning. When she saw Hunter, it was hard to want him gone, but something always left her thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to spend much time with him. Something just felt off about it all.
When they headed out of the house the next morning to get to school, Vanessa saw a black van sitting alongside the road in front of her apartment. It shouldn’t have alerted her. It was just a plain van sitting there. But it felt ominous. It gave her the feeling that someone was watching, someone was tracking them. She hurried Opal into the car, looking back frequently to see if anyone got out or if anyone approached her car.
She drove them to school, constantly looking in her mirror to see if the van or someone else was following. She thought they got there okay, but the feeling of eyes on her kept up as they entered the building. By the time she dropped Opal off and got into her office, she was glad to shut the door and with it, the chance that anyone could see her without her knowing it.
Was she losing her mind? First, Hunter and now this van. Her paranoia was on overdrive. What would she do if Jeremy found them? Where would she run? How would she get Opal out of there and keep them safe? Too many unanswered questions. All morning, she was on edge. A student came to her office, knocked on her door, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
When it was time for her lunch break, she had to get up and do something. On occasion, she walked by Opal’s classroom if she had a few minutes. She liked to peak in on her and see her at work. But this time when she walked by the classroom, it was empty. She stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to think if they were at lunch or some special class.
“Hi Joanna,” Opal’s teacher, Mari Snyder, walked toward her. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, sure, I was just on break and thought I’d peak in on Opal.”
Mari smiled. “They’re at recess, then straight to lunch. This is my break time.”
“Ahh, I see.”
Vanessa turned to walk away, but Mari put a hand on her arm.
“Joanna, is everything okay?”
Vanessa turned back to her. How badly she wanted to spill everything, to tell someone, anyone, what she was going through. She was in desperate need of a confidant. But she just didn’t know Mari enough yet.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She forced a smile.
“Because Katrin seemed a bit… anxious today.”
“She did?”
Mari nodded. “I’m headed to the break room for coffee. Want to join me?”
Vanessa’s need to talk with someone made her immediately turn and follow Mari. When they entered, two other teachers were there, finishing their lunches. As Mari poured them coffee, the teachers left and they were alone.
“So, what’s going on?” Mari asked. “Is Katrin adjusting okay to the move and being in a new school?”
“I think so. You might know better than me how she’s adjusting to school.”
Mari took a sip of her coffee and nodded. “She seems to be doing okay. She keeps to herself, though. I try to get them all involved and working with each other, but she doesn’t always seem too interested in making friends.”
Vanessa mulled that over. Was she afraid of messing up and using the wrong name? Or did she think they’d have to move again if something happened?
“I guess she’s been a bit stressed out,” Vanessa said.
“You think it’s just the move?”
“Well…” Vanessa looked around, making sure she didn’t somehow miss someone coming in. “No, to be honest, I don’t think it’s just that. We came from a really bad situation.”
Mari nodded. “I wondered.”
“You did?”
She nodded again. “There are signs. Things to look for. And especially for someone who’s been through it, it’s easy to spot.”
Vanessa pulled her eyebrows together. “Been through it?”
Mari leaned in closer. “Katrin’s dad, your ex-husband? Was he… abusive?”
“Yes,” Vanessa gasped. “How could you tell?”
“Just through observing Katrin. The way she shies away from touch, how she takes a long time to trust anyone. Things like that.”
“We ran from him. He tried to take her, so we took off. It’s been so horrible having no one to talk to, but we can’t even use our real names. If he finds us, he’ll take Katrin, and I don’t know what he’ll do to me.”
“Do you have a safe place to take her if something happens?”
“Not really. We just have our apartment. I don’t really know anyone here well enough.”
“You do now,” Mari said. “You can always bring her to my house. I’ll look after her as long as I need to, and I’ll keep her safe. I had an abusive father, and I learned how to fight back when I was a teen.”
Vanessa pressed her lips together, unsure. She wanted the option of having a place to take Opal if she needed to, but she didn’t know this woman well.
“I know it’s hard to trust someone new,” Mari said. “But the only way to have anyone there to help you is to trust someone. Katrin knows me, and she’s getting more comfortable with me. I know what she’s gone through.”