by Rachel Burns
The two women walked over to the music room.
The door was open, so they went in. “Has Amelia left already?”
“Amelia?” the music teacher asked.
“Yes, Amelia. I sent her here to practice the closing song with you,” she clarified.
“She never showed up. When did you send her?”
Amelia's teacher looked at her watch. “Almost an hour ago.”
The music teacher walked over to the wall and sounded the alarm.
Brian closed his eyes and sat down. Hadn't he expected this?
No, he hadn't, not after this morning. It didn't make sense. She had smiled at him. That hadn't been fake.
He could hardly hold the phone in his hand it seemed so heavy.
“Are you sure she isn't at school somewhere?”
“We've had the grounds checked several times. Her things are still here.”
“I'll be right there.”
“Sir, perhaps it's better if you don't drive in your condition.”
“I'll be right there,” Brian repeated. He hung up his cell and went out of his office.
His nurses rushed to his side, seeing that he wasn't feeling well.
“I had fish for lunch.” That wasn't true, but still he felt his lunch coming up. “I need to go home.” He could hardly talk. The worst thing that could happen to him had just occurred. His feet could hardly hold him.
“We'll cancel all of your appointments, sir.”
He nodded. “For tomorrow too.” He walked out then.
He stumbled through the parking garage to his car. His car was by far the nicest, and he had been thinking about upgrading to something nicer. Why, with all of his money couldn't he hold onto his wife?
He sped to Amelia's school, praying that this was somehow a mistake that had been cleared up in the meantime.
Jake was waiting for him at the front gate. He slipped into his car, and Brian drove up to the school.
“We still haven't found her. I need to ask you some questions. Were you and Amelia fighting about anything? Anything at all?”
“No. There was nothing.” Brian saw her beautiful smile in his mind. He loved her so much.
“I realize that little girls can test a man's patience. Maybe you punished her this weekend, and she’s mad?”
“It's been months since I had to punish her. I spanked her on her birthday because she wanted to cancel the party but otherwise months.”
“She wanted to cancel the party?”
“Yes, her mother died giving birth, and her birthday was considered a sad day at her house.”
“Have you talked to her father? Could she be with him? James Anderson isn't the type of man to let his daughter marry so young, and then be kept away from him.”
“He hates her. He practically gave her to me on a silver platter. The only condition was that he never had to see her again. He has always blamed Amelia for his wife's death. He wouldn't want her.”
“You have to tell me the truth. Were you two having any problems?” Jake asked.
“Nothing. We had plans for this evening. I was going to help her study for finals.”
“Are you sure that the security guys checked under every rock. She has to be here.”
“The security staff is all my staff. When they quit the agency, I send them here. They are trained to see everything.”
“Then where is my wife?”
Brian stood in the director's office and paced up and down. Jake figured that someone took her. He was having all of Brian's enemies checked out.
Every little girl's family was being called and asked if the girls had seen anything or if Amelia was with them. Jake was still hoping for a misunderstanding.
The things that worried him were that Amelia's bag was still here. That she hadn't known that she was going to be called to the music room, and that the grounds had been full of strangers this afternoon. He had his men talking to the carnival men, to the family of the girls closest to her. Others were at Brian's mansion questioning the staff there.
Everyone was surprised that she was gone. No one spoke of fights. This was starting to look more and more like a kidnapping.
“I feel helpless. I need to do something.” Brian was still pacing. He felt like a trapped animal.
“Brian, I need you to calm down. You have to stay clear-headed. I'm guessing that you will be getting a call soon. Someone will contact you and want an enormous sum of money.”
Nanny Prim broke down crying then. The thought of her precious child in the hands of criminals made her weak in the knees. The teachers all surrounded her and helped her to a chair.
“I don't care. Whatever they want they can have. But if they hurt her, I want to kill them personally.”
“Brian, that’s exactly what I mean. You need to calm down. They have your wife, and she isn't a fighter. We can't afford to make them mad.”
Brian went to the sofa and wrapped his arms over his head. He looked like he was preparing for a crash landing.
“When they call, you have to keep in mind that they are the boss. They have all the cards in their hands. Can you do this?”
“Yes. Anything for Amelia.”
***
The next morning, I was awakened by children, sliding over my head. I quickly got up and brushed the sand off my clothes and shook it out of my hair. The kids started talking to me, asking me what I was doing.
I told them that I wanted to make a sandcastle. They wanted me to make one with them.
I was about to give it a try when a girl around my age called out to them asking them who I was. The children tattled that I had slept under the slide.
I went over to her and begged her not to call the police. “Please, I ran away. I can't go back. They would kill me for this.”
I talked to her, and she talked to me. I was able to find out where I was, Bridgeport Connecticut. I was back in my home state. Pauline was very helpful. She understood completely about me wanting to run away. She even asked how she could help. I told her that I had some money up in Hartford. If I could get my hands on it, then I could maybe get started in life.
I confessed that I was pregnant. She was the only person I told. It felt like a bit of my burden was off of my shoulders.
She told me about a guy she knew who worked in Hartford. He had to be there really early every morning. He could drive me up this evening, for free.
I knew that I shouldn't take rides from strangers, but at the moment, I only knew strangers. Pauline was a take control person. I needed that.
I sat with her at the park and listened to her complain about her parents. They yelled at her all day and made her babysit. She couldn't understand why they’d had children. They never did anything with them.
Daddy had spent a lot of time with me. Furthermore, he had enjoyed doing it. He had so many good qualities. It was his one bad quality that had made me leave him.
I hugged Pauline when she had to go inside with the little ones. She had introduced me to the guy who would be giving me a ride, Zach. He said that he would pick me up at four in the morning, right where I was.
Pauline had been able to guilt him into helping me, comparing me to Mary with Jesus looking for a room in the inn.
I sat all alone for hours on end until a car pulled up. The lights of the car blinded me. I got up from the bench, trying to see who it was.
The car door opened, and someone got out.
Was it the police?
They would call Daddy to come get me, and everything would be for nothing.
“Are you coming or not?” It was Zach.
“Yes, I'm coming.” I hurried over to the passenger side and got in.
It was only an hour drive, but it was so dark. Zach played me hundreds of different songs and asked if I knew them.
I didn't know any.
That frustrated him, and he tried the next song and then the next.
There were hardly any other cars on the road. Before I knew it, we were ther
e. I thanked him with my whole heart for giving me the ride.
He just wanted to get rid of me.
I took off walking towards my father's house.
I walked for hours before I got to my house. We lived in the richer area. I walked past houses that were so nice and wondered if everyone who had a bit of money was crazy.
I went in the way I usually went in, through the garden. I was very good at not being seen. I ran up the steps to the kitchen and walked in like I belonged there. I went right through the door to the hallway. I looked up and down the hallway to make sure my father wasn't around.
I quietly snuck down the cast iron staircase to the basement. I opened my door hoping to find everything just how I had left it.
It wasn't.
My bed had been taken apart, and the mattress was gone. Headboard and baseboard were leaning against each other on the back wall, and more junk furniture had been placed in here.
I turned to my wardrobe and opened up the drawer. My things were gone. With all of my might, I pushed the wardrobe to the side. This wasn't something that I should be doing in my condition, but starving was also something that I shouldn't be doing in my condition.
Once it was far enough out of the way, I removed the floorboard. My fingers shook as I reached for the wallet inside. I held my breath as I opened it.
I sighed relieved. My money was still there.
I counted it quickly Three hundred and fourteen dollars. It had been worth the scare to come here and get it.
“What do you think you are doing here?”
My head jerked up. My father was standing in the doorway. His face was all red. I jumped to my feet and walked past him. “Leaving,” I told him. I knew that he would move to the side as I walked past him. I was right.
“Did your millionaire throw you out already?” he asked.
I had reached the bottom of the stairs. I didn't want to answer my father, it felt like I was stooping down to his level, but I didn't want him to think that nobody wanted me either. “I left him.”
I went up the stairs and out of the front door.
My feet automatically took me to the train station. The routine of all these years wasn't ready to be broken.
I got in line to buy a ticket. This time I told the man a different destination than usual. “New York City, please. As cheap as possible, I have time I can wait. That isn't a problem.” I would find Cindy and take her up on her offer. She said she would help me. I was counting on her.
“From Hartford to New York that will be forty-one dollars with a coach value ticket.”
“Yes, I liked that.” I fumbled with my wallet to get the money out. Money never felt right in my hands. Nobody wanted me to have any, plus I just didn't have any practice with it. “How long is the train ride?”
“That's a three hour trip.”
“Thank you.” I turned away from him. I had to wait four hours before I could go get help. I decided to use this opportunity to go to the bathroom and clean up.
I slipped my wallet back into my pocket. Nanny always made sure that I had a fresh handkerchief with me at school. Not all the little girls had pockets. Nanny had insisted that I did.
I missed not having her take care of me. At first, it had felt so wrong to have her touch me as she washed me and dressed me, but now I missed it.
Were they right?
Was I incapable of taking care of myself?
I had never, not even once made a decision in all of my life. Running away had been the first one I ever made.
When I was young, my father decided what I would get and what not. Then he sent me to boarding school. When he refused to pay for my things, they got the older girls to donate their hand-me-downs to me. They came to me and told me that I would be helping out in the kitchen. When I got into difficulties, someone had to step forward to help me out.
Even when my father kicked me out, someone had stepped in to save the day, telling me what to do.
I missed Daddy. I wished that he had been normal and loved me for the age I was.
It would have been a dream come true to have been his real wife. I could have gone to college and made something out of myself like the other women who had sat at our table the evening of the benefits gala.
I had just been a trophy wife and Daddy's ticket into the Daddy's Club. He hadn't married me for love. I had been there, and he thought that he could mold me.
It didn't pay to dwell in the past, or to point fingers. I was right where I should have been last year, at the train station on the way to New York to find a job. That was just a little more difficult because of baby. But it had to be done.
I would live on welfare for a couple of months until I could afford my own way. This was honestly the best thing for me. I was forcing myself to take control of my own life.
If need be, I would beg Cindy for help.
I hoped she remembered me.
I walked into around until I found a police station. I went in and asked them where I could find social services. They directed me, and I took off, feeling like such a loser. I was ashamed of myself, but I needed to protect my child.
This was a chance for my child to grow up not knowing about such things, about daddies and their wives. I had to swallow my pride.
The people were being divided up according to what they wanted, what their last names were, alphabetically and according to which employee had a moment.
I waited over two hours, and then it was closing time. Everyone was told to come back again tomorrow.
I looked at the opening hours as I left the building. I needed to find someplace to sleep again tonight. If only I could have rested at my father's house.
That hadn't been possible because he hated me.
I had tears in my eyes as I walked around. I clenched my jaw together to keep them in, but my gut hurt too badly.
Did anyone, anywhere like me?
Daddy and Nanny had only liked me when I was their good little girl, but was that really me?
What was the real me like?
I needed someone to come and take care of me again. This plan of mine wasn't working out. I was just too young to take care of myself, just like Daddy always said.
I hadn't thought this the whole way through.
My hand covered my mouth as I walked around the same blocks again and again. I was too afraid that I would forget where the building was.
What had I done?
Chapter 10 – Cindy’s Family
Brian stared at the phone. It never rang. Jake had gotten him a new phone so Brian could call his friends and family and tell them not to call.
It had been over twenty-four hours. Jake said that he would get a call within the first twenty-four hours, and Brian hadn't.
Brian had to drug Nanny Prim to help her through the pain. He was giving her regular shots. He wished he could take them too, but he needed to be awake when the call came in.
Brian's greatest worry was that the kidnappers had killed her. He couldn't live a life without her. She was his reason to exist. She depended on him to protect her.
He wasn't doing his job.
Jake had questioned everyone about Amelia. No one spoke of her being unhappy with her daddy. Just her teacher mentioned that she had been a little reserved since Rose was working on the Festival.
Another interesting comment had come from Oliver's wife, Emily. She told him that Amelia had dunked her garlic bread in her chocolate pudding. Emily guessed that Amelia was pregnant.
When Jake talked to Brian, Brian told him that his sperm count was too low to father a child.
Jake then had the idea of a lover. Both Brian and Nanny said that it was impossible. Amelia was always with one of them.
Jake asked Brian about their sex life. Brian told him that they were both young. They slept together daily. When Jake voiced the idea that it might have been too much for Amelia, Brian was forced to tell him that Amelia was often the driving force.
Jake found that very hard
to believe. Amelia was a goody two-shoes. Heather often complained about Amelia being too perfect. She called her a teacher's pet.
He also found it hard to believe that Amelia could have run away. She obviously had the smarts but not the courage.
His men had questioned and re-questioned the men from the carnival rental. He had a feeling that they were the key. All of them were being watched.
Nanny Prim replayed everything in her mind. She wasn't so certain that Amelia hadn't run away. She scolded herself that she had been too hard on the child. Amelia couldn't do anything about her dyslexia and Nanny had spanked her so hard for that.
Nanny had often been too strict with the child. She should have explained to Amelia that her daddy would never divorce her, instead of paddling her.
Amelia could have been spared so much.
Nanny had even broken the child's fingers, and Amelia hadn't said a word because she didn't want to disturb her daddy at work.
Amelia was so special to her heart. That one charge that she hoped to grow old with. She loved Amelia like she was her real child.
If Amelia ever came back, things would be different. Nanny Prim would work for Amelia and not for him.
Her loyalties were to her child.
Brian walked into Amelia's school. It had been Jake’s idea that Brian should speak in front of all the girls and ask them if they had seen anything. Jake and his experts would be watching the girls to see if any showed telltale signs that they were lying.
Brian had prepared a speech and memorized it, but still he had the cards in his pocket. He was afraid that this would be the speech that he would fail at.
Would he be able to look his friend's little girls in the eyes and not break down and cry?
That seemed so unlikely. Since Amelia had been gone, he was a broken man. He hated himself.
How could be feel things like hunger and tiredness when his wife wasn't safe by his side?
How could he dare sleep in a warm bed at night when he had no idea where she was sleeping?