“Daddy!”

Turning around at the sound of a little girl’s shout, I see a man in military fatigues walk through the door from the gangway with a crowd of other passengers whose plane just landed. As soon as he sees the girl, his face lights up with happiness and his eyes fill with tears. He drops his go-bag to the ground and races towards her. It’s like something out of a fucking Hallmak card or cheesy chick flick. The little girl, around Emma’s age, throws herself into his arms and he scoops her up, cradling her to him as tightly as he can.

I had seen the little girl and her mom pacing back and forth nervously with a few airport personnel while I stood here. Since 9-11, if you don’t have a ticket, you don’t get anywhere near the gate, but when it involves a soldier coming home from war, the airlines make exceptions.

Right now, I can’t take my eyes off of the scene in front of me no matter how much I want to look away. The woman joins in on the tearful reunion, wrapping her arms around both of them. The man finally looks away from the little girl to kiss his woman, telling her he loves her, and apologizing for being gone so long and missing so much.

“Baby, we were fine, you don’t have to apologize. This is what you do and I’m so proud of you. I’m just happy to have you home again,” the woman tells him through her tears.

“Daddy, can you tuck me in to bed every night now?” the little girl asks him.

My heart constricts like someone reached into my chest and wrapped their hands around it in a vice grip. It takes everything in me not to crumple to the floor in pain. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was having a heart attack right now, but I know that’s not it. Standing here watching this family reunite after so many months apart and seeing strength and love shining in the woman’s eyes, I realize what a huge mistake I made. Military families do this day in and day out. They say good-bye to a loved one and they do what they have to do to survive until they can be together again. It’s hard and it’s painful but if you love each other, anything is possible.

I love Gwen and Emma. I love the idea that when I leave to go on a mission, they’ll be there waiting for me with open arms when I get back. I love seeing all the pink Barbie shit strewn throughout my house and I love teaching Emma how to be a soldier. I love that Gwen will tell me when I’m being an ass and I can tell her when she’s being stubborn. I love that they both accepted me in their life and saw something in me that I never saw in myself. I don’t know how to be a husband or a father, but I can learn if Gwen and Emma will teach me. If anyone has the strength to be with a man who has a job like I do, it would be Gwen.

With one last look at the family next to me, I turn and race as fast as I can out of the airport. It’s time for me to get my head out of my ass and go get my girls; I just hope it’s not too late.

Chapter 28

Gwen

“I’m glad you’re coming with us to the police station,” I tell Ellie as I make my way to Brady’s apartment – my home. Funny how quickly being with Austin made me forget where I belong.

“I just want to stop at the apartment real quick so Emma and I can change. We ran out of clean clothes yesterday.”

Ellie has been quiet since she told Austin off before we left. She keeps running her hand through her hair nervously and turning around to check on Emma in the back seat. I know she’s scared to file her own report against William and I hope she goes through with it. When she goes back to New York, she needs to be protected.

“So, Emma, how would you like to come and visit Aunt Ellie in New York some time?” Ellie asks, turning around to look at Emma.

I watch in the rearview mirror as Emma shrugs, staring out the window at the passing landscape.

“Mom, are we going back to Austin’s house later?” she asks, meeting my gaze in the mirror.

I put on a brave smile for her even though I my heart hurts just thinking about him. In the end, he didn’t want us. As much as it pains me to admit it, we’re better off without him. We deserve someone in our lives that will fight for us.

“Austin has to go away for work, baby,” I tell her, not wanting to elaborate right now. I’ll save that for later when we’re alone and I can wrap my arms around her and try to explain to her why we won’t be seeing Austin anymore.

“Will he be home soon? He was going to show me how to do push-ups like soldiers do so I can grow big and strong,” she informs me.

Ellie rolls her eyes. “Emma, Austin isn’t coming back. You’re better off without him.”

“ELLIE!” I scold, craning my neck to see Emma’s lip quivering with emotion.

I turn back around and shoot Ellie an angry look, keeping my voice low so Emma doesn’t hear me even though I want to scream at my friend. “Why would you do that? She doesn’t need to know anything about this right now.”

Ellie huffs and shakes her head at me. “You can’t always sugar coat things with her. She’s a smart girl, she might as well find out now that men will always let you down.”

Ellie is so bitter and angry that I don’t know how to handle her, but I’m not about to let her hurt my child.

“Emma is my child and I will decide when and if she should know things. Please don’t talk to her about something she’s not going to understand,” I inform her.

The car is quiet the rest of the drive to Brady’s apartment and I’m glad for that. I always thought Ellie and I would be friends forever, but there’s a divide between us now that I don’t think we’ll ever be able to cross. She doesn’t know how to forgive me for insinuating that William didn’t really care about her, and I don’t know how to forgive her for falling in love with him.

When we get to the apartment building, I help Emma out of the car and Ellie follows along behind us as we make our way upstairs. I pass Karen in the hallway and she gives Emma and me a hug before hurrying out to run some errands.

“Alright, Emma, go on back and change your clothes, honey. I’m going to put our bags in my room and change then after that we have to go and meet some people, okay?” Emma nods and walks slowly out of the room towards her bedroom.

I don’t say anything to Ellie as I follow behind Emma and go into my room. I don’t know if I have anything left to say to her and it makes me sad – a lifetime of memories and friendship, gone in the blink of an eye. Throwing our bags on top of my bed, I decide to take a quick shower while Emma is changing, knowing that Ellie will keep an eye on her until I’m finished.

I shower quickly, throwing on a pair of yoga pants, tennis shoes and a long-sleeved shirt. I don’t hear any noise coming from the living room so I forego drying my hair to go out and see what Emma and Ellie are doing. When I step out from the hallway, what I see makes my blood run cold.

“Emma? Baby, what’s wrong?” I ask, racing over to where she lies on her back on the carpet in the middle of the room with her eyes closed.

I fall to the floor next to her, grabbing onto her face and turning her towards me. “Emma, baby, come on, wake up.”

When she doesn’t respond, my hands start to sweat and a knot of fear makes my stomach clench. I can see her chest rising and falling so I know she’s still breathing, but it doesn’t make me feel any better right now. I don’t know if she fainted or if something else happened and it scares the hell out of me.

“ELLIE!” I shout, frantically running my hands over Emma’s body to check for injuries before patting her cheeks, trying to get her to respond.

Glancing around the room quickly, I don’t see her in the living room or the kitchen. Looking back down at Emma, I wonder if she hit her head again. Checking under the bandage on her head, I see that her stitches are still in tact and I don’t see any blood. I lean down over her and start places kisses all over her face. “Come on, baby, wake up.”

Reaching in my pocket for my phone, I realize I left it in the bedroom.

“ELLIE! CALL 9-1-1!” I scream, continuing to check all over Emma’s body for signs of some kind of trauma.

I don’t know where Ellie is and right now I don’t care. I quickly slide my hands under Emma’s body to pick her up off of the floor and move her to the couch. When I get my arms under her, my fingers brush against something on the floor on the other side of her. Pulling my arms out, I lean over her and see a hypodermic needle on the carpet. With a shaking hand, I pick the needle up and stare at it in confusion.

“Oh, Jesus. Oh my God,” I whisper, tossing the needle to the ground and pulling up the sleeves of Emma’s shirt to check for needle marks on her skin.

It doesn’t even register in my mind that I should be questioning how in the hell a hypodermic needle found its way into this house and anywhere near my baby. The only thing going through my head is getting Emma to wake up and look at me.

Running my fingers up and down the smooth skin of her arm, I see the red mark on the outside of her upper arm and a whimper flies from my mouth. “No, no, no, come on baby, come on!”

Wrapping my arms around Emma, I pull her to my body and rock back and forth, the tears falling steadily down my face as I pray for her to wake up. Maybe Brady is diabetic and never told me. Maybe that was just his insulin. Maybe she’s just in shock and she’ll be fine after a few minutes. It can’t be anything more serious than that… it can’t.

I’m so busy sobbing for Emma to wake up that it doesn’t even occur to me that I should be worrying about someone else bringing that needle into this apartment.

“Oh stop crying, she’ll wake up eventually, it was just a tranquilizer.”

Too late, I look up just in time to see a hand holding the heavy, crystal candy dish from the coffee table flying toward my face. I have just enough time to scream before the dish cracks against the side of my skull and everything goes black.

Chapter 29

Austin

“What do you mean they never showed up?” I shout into my phone as I press down harder on the accelerator and fly through an intersection.

“I mean, I just got a call from my guy at the station in Nashville and he’s been waiting there for a few hours for Gwen and Ellie to show up and sign that report and they haven’t come in yet,” Mark tells me. “I called Gwen’s phone a bunch of times, but she hasn’t answered. Are you sure she was still willing to do this? The charges aren’t going to stick if I don’t get those signed forms immediately.”

I know Gwen was pissed at me about handing that file over to the police, but there’s no way she would flake out on this. She was on her way out the door to head straight to the police station the last time I saw her. She’s not the type of person who just wouldn’t show up when someone was expecting her. If she changed her mind about filing the report, she would have called the station.

“And you’re absolutely certain you have Stratford in your custody right now?” I question him, hoping that lines weren’t crossed and William somehow wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

“Actually, we couldn’t get a transfer that quickly for him to come back to New York. The department in Bowling Green did all of the questioning and video conferenced me in on it. I’m sorry, Austin, but he lawyered-up and they couldn’t keep him any longer since Gwen never signed the forms.”

The phone almost slips from my hands at Mark’s words and I have to fight to concentrate on the road while he continues talking.

“That guy is the biggest asshole I’ve ever seen. He adamantly denies ever being in Nashville or having any kind of contact with Gwen or Ellie. And I hate to say this, Austin, but the guy has a solid alibi. He decided not to go to the medical conference in Chicago and went to see his parents who live out that way instead. He’s been staying with them for the last week. They verified this with written statements and we also have eyewitness testimony from people who saw him out and about at different restaurants in the Bowling Green area. Even though he’s a pompous jerk, I don’t think he’s your guy that’s been stalking Gwen.”

That makes no sense. It can’t be right. Who the hell else would have done those things to Gwen? She didn’t imagine any of that shit. If it wasn’t Stratford trying to get under her skin, then who the fuck was it? It’s not just a coincidence that Gwen can’t be reached now that he’s no longer in police custody.

“He tried denying ever laying a hand on Gwen throughout their marriage until we threw that file you sent us down on the table in front of him. His face went completely white and I thought for sure he was going to throw up all over the table. His lawyer wouldn’t let him say another word,” Mark finishes.

“Something isn’t right, Mark. Gwen would never be a no-show. How long has it been since they let Stratford go?” I demand.

“I don’t know, maybe a few hours? Stratford’s lawyer told us he’d make sure to escort him immediately back to New York,” Mark explains.

“And you seriously fucking believed him? He’s been out on the loose for the same amount of time that Gwen hasn’t been able to be reached. That’s not a Goddamn coincidence. I’m going to her place now. Call your guy in Nashville and give him a head’s up,” I tell him as I change directions and head to Brady’s apartment.

“This lawyer is a top notch guy. There’s no way he’d let Stratford out of his sight.”

I scoff at Mark as I screech through another intersection. “You said so yourself – money talks and Stratford has a shit ton of it. Who the fuck knows how many people he’s got in his pocket doing his dirty work?”

Mark curses and I hear him shouting orders through the line. “We’re calling Nashville now and the lawyer. Call me as soon as you get to her place,” Mark informs me.