Five

by Blythe, Jane

  “It’s not even ten.” She protested the idea of sleep. “And I'm not tired, and I can't sleep in front of all these—"

  “Laura,” he cut her off, “close your eyes and get some rest. If you don’t, I'm going to pick you up and find a doctor and get them to give you something to make you sleep,” he threatened. Laura didn’t like him bossing her around, but this time he was putting his foot down.

  “Okay …” Laura sank down against him. Her acceptance of his orders did not make Jack feel any better. “I have to get better, Jack,” Laura whispered. “We’re about to have two kids, and Zach will be in school in just a few years. I need to get better. Our kids deserve better; you deserve better.”

  Jack could feel tears seeping from her eyes and soaking through his sweater. Her tears broke his heart. How could she not know how much he loved her? How could she worry about disappointing him? He tightened his grip on her. “Baby, I am the luckiest guy in the world to have you as my wife. And Zach is the luckiest little boy in the world to have you as his mommy. This baby will be, too. You have a medical condition. You don’t have any control over your agoraphobia, but you're learning to manage it. Your condition doesn’t make anyone love you any less, it doesn’t make me love you any less, and it won't make our kids love you any less. Honey, how can you not know that? What can I say to you to make you believe it?”

  Shrugging, she just snuggled closer, burrowing into him and burying her face in his neck. “Just hold me.”

  “Always, angel.” He kissed the top of her head. “Always.”

  Within mere minutes, Jack could feel Laura relax against him as sleep took hold. As he held his sleeping wife, he wondered how it was possible to worry so much about one person. Would he ever be able to stop worrying about Laura? If he couldn’t, would it end up coming between them?

  “She asleep?” Ryan suddenly appeared beside them.

  “Yeah,” Jack replied quietly. “She insisted she wasn't tired, but as soon as I convinced her to close her eyes, she was out like a light. How’s Sofia?”

  “She's good. She’s asleep, too. The doctors have hooked her up to an IV. Once she’s rehydrated and gets some rest, she should feel a lot better. How’s Laura doing?”

  Jack could feel concern crease his face. “She thinks she has to get better because Zach and the baby and I deserve better. She thinks we’re all going to love her less because she has agoraphobia.” How could he combat something like that? It was so completely untrue and unfounded.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Ryan frowned.

  “Yeah, it is,” he agreed grimly. “I just don’t know how to convince her of that.”

  “Sofia’s going to be fine. She’ll probably be released some time tomorrow morning. You should take Laura home. Let her get some proper rest. Maybe if she wasn't always so tired, she’d feel a little better about things. She still having nightmares?”

  “No—at least, not very often—but she still has insomnia. She only sleeps maybe five hours a night.”

  “Then take her home, put her to bed; really, we’ll be fine.”

  There was nothing Jack would love better than to take his wife home and make her sleep, but he knew she wasn't going to be able to relax until she knew that Alice was safe. “No, Laura met some girl. A teenager. She thinks the girl’s in trouble and that she might be able to get her to open up.”

  “Laura is really good at what she does.”

  “Yeah, she is,” Jack agreed. “Sometimes I think her work is the only thing that keeps her sane. It’s her salvation.”

  “No, Jack, it’s not,” Ryan told him. “You are her salvation. You and Zach.”

  “Thanks.” Jack shot his brother a brittle smile, wishing he believed that. “But I don’t feel like her savior. I know everyone thinks that I'm always so good at knowing what to say and do with victims who are suffering, but it’s different with Laura. When she cries in my arms and tells me that she doubts that we could love her because of what she’s been through and what it did to her, I feel so helpless. So inadequate.”

  “It is different with Laura,” Ryan gently reminded him. “She’s your wife, you love her. And you give her exactly what she needs—your love.”

  “I do love her so much,” Jack whispered, pressing a kiss to his sleeping wife’s forehead. He wished his love was enough to help Laura heal. And he knew in a way it did, but both he and Laura were going to have to accept that she might never completely recover from all she’d been through.

  “And that’s why she gets up every morning, because she knows how much you love her. I'm going to go back to sit with Sofia; let me know when that kid comes back and tells Laura all her problems.”

  “When the kid comes back, not if?”

  He shrugged. “People trust Laura. They open up to her. The kid will be back.”

  * * * * *

  9:41 P.M.

  “Angela, I don’t want to stay here anymore,” five-year-old Abigail tugged at her big sister’s hand.

  “Alice said we had to,” Angela reminded her. Although she was wondering whether this was a good idea. They couldn’t really change anything. Could they?

  “Angela,” Abby whimpered.

  Her sister was getting scared, and if she were honest, she was, too. They never went anywhere. Never. And being here in a hospital on their own was overwhelming. “It’s okay, Abby.” Angela patted her sister’s head. “Everything will be okay. We just have to do what Alice said.”

  “I want to go home.” Abby was near tears.

  “Really?” Angela shot her an incredulous look. “You really want to go back home?”

  Abby hesitated. “No. Home is scary. I want Ariyel.” The little girl began to cry.

  Angela wrapped an arm around her sister. “It’s okay, Abby.” But Angela knew it wasn't okay. Nothing about their lives was okay. She may be only nine, but she knew what went on in her house. She knew what their father did to Ariyel and to Alice. Just as she knew that in a few years he would do it to her, too. And then to Abby and Arianna.

  He needed to be stopped.

  But how could they do it? They were only kids.

  They needed Ariyel, but she was sick. And even when she wasn't, he kept her so drugged up that she barely knew who she was and what was happening around her.

  Alice, however, thought they had a chance at saving themselves. She thought she could do it, but Angela wasn't so sure.

  Still, she wanted to believe it could be true.

  “Can't we go and find Ariyel?” Abby begged.

  “No,” Angela responded, her voice firm. Alice had trusted her with Abby and Arianna; she needed to stay strong for them. “We need to stay here. So he can't find us.”

  Tears were trickling down Abby’s pale cheeks. Her blue eyes were red rimmed, and her pigtails were coming undone because she kept fiddling with them. Angela wasn't sure how long she’d be able to keep her little sister under control. Abby was an emotional child. She cried easily, she got scared easily, she was very serious for a five-year-old, and usually only Ariyel could calm the little girl down once she got upset.

  To make matters worse, baby Arianna began to fuss. Arianna was only two months old and Angela had never looked after her on her own before. She wasn't completely comfortable being in charge of the baby. She knew how to change a diaper, but she’d only ever done it with Ariyel supervising. She’d only ever fed the baby with Ariyel close by, too.

  But now it was all up to her.

  She had to do her part.

  “Come on, Abby, let’s sing some songs while I feed Arianna, and then we can play a game.”

  * * * * *

  9:46 P.M.

  If she hadn’t had an IV in her arm, Sofia would have gotten out of bed and gone for a walk around the hospital. She wasn't going to sleep, so lying in bed seemed like a waste.

  Sofia hated hospitals.

  Hated them.

  With a passion.

  Too many bad memories. She knew what it felt like to think
that you were dying and those months that she’d spent in and out of hospitals had been the worst days of her life.

  Now she just wanted to be home with her husband and her kids. Her five-year-old daughter, Sophie, and two-year-old son, Ned, were the lights of her life. Although Sofia was technically Sophie’s niece, the little girl was in every other way her daughter, and she loved Sophie just as much as she loved her and Ryan’s biological son.

  One day she was going to have to explain their whole complicated family history to Sophie. She was not looking forward to that. But the girl deserved to know who her biological parents were, once she was old enough to understand. For now, though, Sophie was just a happy, well-adjusted five-year-old, who loved going to kindergarten, ballet class, and playing with her friends.

  Groaning, she rubbed at her head. She was exhausted, as most mothers of small children were. Her days were busy. Between work and the kids and household chores, she rarely had a spare couple of minutes to take care of herself, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She was living her dreams.

  At least Ryan was getting some rest.

  He was asleep in a chair beside her bed. His head was resting against the back of the seat, tilted at an angle that looked like it was going to give him a stiff neck if he stayed like that too long. One of his hands held hers, but his grip was limp.

  She was glad he was sleeping.

  Her husband was a worrier by nature.

  And unfortunately, their lives and their friends’ lives had been filled with plenty of things to worry about. She wanted to get out of here and back home as quickly as possible, because the longer she was here, the more her husband would worry.

  With all the upheaval in her life in the five years since they had met, he had been her rock. He was always there for her, whatever she needed. He was the husband she had always dreamed of and the father to their children that she always wished she would have.

  She was so lucky to have him.

  Sofia looked up as the door to her room opened and a doctor bustled inside. She remembered the reddish-blond hair and dark blue eyes of Dr. Daniels; he’d treated her before. He’d been diligent, empathetic, and caring, and yet there had been something about him that had creeped her out a little.

  “Good evening, Mrs. Xander.” Dr. Daniels offered her a huge smile. Too big a smile, Sofia couldn’t help but think.

  She gestured at her sleeping husband. “Let’s try to keep it down so we don’t disturb him.”

  The doctor’s smile deepened. “Sure. So, what brought you here tonight?” he asked as he picked up her wrist to check her pulse.

  “She fainted,” Ryan replied, lifting his head.

  “Oh, did we wake you?” Although she wanted him to get some rest, Sofia was a little relieved that her husband was awake, and she didn’t have to deal with the creepy doctor on her own.

  “It’s fine, I had a good power nap.” Ryan took her other hand then focused back on the doctor. “She’s had the flu, and she’s been overdoing it, then tonight she just collapsed.”

  “Any chance you could be pregnant?” Dr. Daniels asked.

  “No way.” Sofia shook her head; she and Ryan weren’t planning on having any more kids. Sophie and Ned were enough, so she was on the pill.

  “As in it’s physically impossible or because you use contraceptives?” the doctor asked.

  It wasn't physically impossible, and she realized no contraceptive was infallible, so she supposed there could be a chance she was pregnant.

  Dr. Daniels obviously concluded that from her expression. “We’ll run a pregnancy test just to be sure. Other than the flu symptoms, have you noticed anything else off the last few weeks?”

  “I don’t think so, just sore throat, muscle aches, fever, cough, tiredness, and some vomiting and nausea,” Sofia replied.

  “All right, well it looks like you just got dehydrated; it can happen when you're vomiting and not replacing the liquids lost. You seem to be responding well to treatment, so providing you're stable in the morning, you can go home,” Dr. Daniels told her.

  “That’s what the nurse said when I asked her.” Ryan nodded.

  Dr. Daniels didn’t look pleased that Ryan had been talking to the nurses, but Ryan didn’t seem to notice.

  “When you go back home, you need to make sure you keep up with the fluids. You also need to make sure that you get plenty of rest. I know you have a little one at home, but maybe she can stay with relatives for a few days until you get your strength back.”

  “You remember that I have a daughter?” The knowledge that he’d remembered that from five years ago made her uncomfortable. He would have seen thousands of patients since then. Why had she stuck in his head?

  The doctor shrugged disinterestedly. “Given who your family was and what happened to you, you were big news when you came through here. Well, I have other patients to check on, so I’ll leave you to get some rest. I won't be on shift tomorrow morning. I finish in a couple of hours, but another doctor will discharge you, assuming your vitals are all good.”

  Watching him bustle out the door, Sofia wondered whether maybe she had misread the man.

  Maybe he wasn't all that interested in her.

  Maybe he wasn't really paying any more attention to her than he was any of his other patients.

  Maybe he was just one of those people who seemed a little too intense.

  “What’s wrong?” Ryan was watching her closely.

  “It’s nothing.” She didn’t want to give Ryan another thing to worry about.

  He gave her a half smile. “Do you think I believe that?”

  She returned his smile with a half-smile of her own. “It’s just Dr. Daniels, I don’t know, there’s just something about him that—”

  “Creeps you out,” Ryan finished for her.

  She nodded. “I don’t know why. It’s not like he’s done anything specific. It’s just I don’t like him for some reason.”

  “You should trust your instincts,” Ryan told her. “You do have a stalker; it could be him.”

  “We didn’t meet Dr. Daniels until I got stabbed, but I had a stalker long before that—years before,” she reminded him. “I'm just tired and probably making way too much of it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I'm sure,” Sofia stated firmly.

  * * * * *

  9:56 P.M.

  She was doing the right thing, wasn't she?

  Alice really hoped that she was.

  Even if she wasn't, it wasn't like she had many other options.

  Or any other options.

  This was it. Her one chance to save them all.

  But she was scared. If she messed this up, she would probably never get another opportunity. They would all be trapped, stuck in that house—with that man—forever.

  That was completely unacceptable.

  Now was not the time to be scared. She had to suck it up and do what Ariyel would have done.

  The others were counting on her. Alice was worried that Ariyel couldn’t last much longer; the drugs were starting to make her sick. And the little girls were just that—little girls. They deserved a normal life. They all did.

  If this was her one shot at freedom, then she had to make it count.

  Already she had set things in motion. Alice had hidden away the little girls where, hopefully, no one would find them. At least for a few hours. She’d lucked out that it had been nighttime when they'd brought Ariyel to the hospital. Things were quieter, so the chances of Angela, Abby, and Arianna being found immediately were slim. But come tomorrow morning, someone was bound to stumble upon them.

  So she didn’t have a second to waste.

  With the little girls safe for the moment, it was time to move forward. And step two was to find someone to tell.

  Initially, Alice had intended to talk to a doctor. You could trust doctors, right? So that had seemed like the perfect person to confess what had happened to her and her sisters.

  But the
n she’d met that woman.

  Laura.

  She had just hidden the little girls away and was heading back down to the emergency room when they had literally walked into each other.

  Laura was beautiful, and she reminded Alice of her mother. Laura’s features were a little finer, and her eyes were an unusual violet color rather than blue like Alice’s and her family’s. But it wasn't the physical similarities that had Alice feeling like she could trust this woman. It was something else. Only she wasn't sure exactly what. She just felt like Laura would understand.

  There was something in Laura’s eyes. Something haunted. Laura had been through something terrible.

  Instinctively, Alice knew that she could open up to her. That she could confess everything. She had been about to tell it all when that tall, blond guy had shown up. Scared, she had run. Worried that it was all pointless. That even if she told, no one could really help her.

  No.

  She couldn’t think like that.

  She couldn’t get discouraged.

  She was sure Laura could help her. The woman had said that she worked with kids who needed help. And she had known something was wrong even though Alice had never said a word.

  Laura was the answer to her prayers.

  She would tell her everything and trust that Laura could help her find a way to fix things.

  What did she have to lose?

  Things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

  They’d already pretty much hit rock bottom, so the only way from here was up.

  This had to be the right thing to do. It had to work. Lives were at stake.

  That day was a little over five years ago, but it was still as fresh in her memory as though it were yesterday.