There’s an ice cream shop just up the road from the park.
With Luna and Sammy walking closely beside me, I try to focus on it as our next destination, thankful that I can at least put one foot in front of the other. I text Wyatt, and he’s coming to pick us up from there. He was rather annoyed at first that I took the kids out without him and his brothers though in hindsight, maybe it was for the better. I knew it wasn’t right, given everything that has happened, but there are times when I just want to be with my kids, away from the world. I assured him the cops in the unmarked car were never far from us. The park had seemed like a reasonable and neutral place to be.
I’m glad Wyatt wasn’t present for Harriet’s unexpected visit. How do I tell him, Eric, and Chase about the photos? About what’s at stake, all of a sudden? This could ruin their lives too. It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to Luna or Sammy, either. Personal accountability keeps coming up in the back of my head—I should own this. But can I also own the repercussions?
“Mama, can I get cherry?” Sammy asks.
“I thought you wanted mint chocolate chip,” Luna says. She seems so grownup sometimes and I want it to slow down. But at the same time, I am so proud of her. She is patient and calm, especially where Sammy is involved. “I’m going to get vanilla.”
“They have hazelnut gelato, too,” I say, and that brings a twinkle to her eyes.
The ice cream shop is in my sights. There’s not much of a crowd; it’s barely ten in the morning. People are still having their first coffee of the day at this hour.
I want to burn those photos but it won’t burn away the problem.
My thoughts are getting scrambled again. Harriet did this on purpose. She meant to rattle me. It’s not even the first time yet I keep falling for it. I keep letting her get to me. Colby, too. I should’ve grown a thicker skin by now but I loved that man. I gave him years of my life. My devotion, my time, everything I had to give was his. And he hurt me, repeatedly, in every way that he could. He chipped away at my dignity and confidence until I could barely recognize the woman staring back at me in the mirror.
The woman I’ve become, however, is angry. She demands peace and retribution in equal parts. I just need to figure out how to get it.
A car pulls up beside us. I don’t recognize it, and I don’t like its tinted windows, either. A man gets out and gives me a shy smile. “Hi, excuse me,” he says. “Can you help me? I think I’m lost.”
“I can try,” I reply, not stepping any closer to the car.
The man looks young, maybe late twenties. His jeans and T-shirt are neat and iron-pressed, his hair combed nicely. His baby face and bright smile ease my nerves a bit and make me smile back as he comes around the car with a map application open on his smartphone.
“Awesome,” he says. “I’m looking for a Macy’s in the area. I was told it would be somewhere around here.”
That has me stumped. “I don’t recall seeing a Macy’s on the way over. Maybe further up 6th Avenue?”
“Which one’s that?”
“See that gelato shop on the corner?” I point ahead, expecting him to follow my gaze, but he keeps looking at me instead, his eyes and smile starting to become a tad too wide for my comfort. “That’s 6th avenue. You could ask the guys at the gelato shop. They might know better than me.”
“That’s okay, I already got what I wanted,” he says.
“Huh?”
I feel the burn in my side. The surge of electricity shooting through me with such power that my heart feels like it’s gonna give out.
“MAMA!” Luna screams.
At hearing Luna’s terror, Sammy begins to scream too.
I can barely see. I fall in the man’s arms, my body twitching as the burn in my side intensifies. I glance down and see the taser slipping back into his jeans pocket. I want to cry out for help yet I can’t move. I’m shaking, my whole body contracting in raw pain, every muscle twitching.
“Hurry, I got the kids,” Colby’s voice has my head turning with a whiplash motion.
“No…” I manage as I watch him come out from the back of the same car.
“Come on, before anybody sees you,” Colby tells the baby-faced man.
I’m dragged away from the sidewalk while Colby takes hold of Luna and Sammy. I hear him trying to soothe them, and I desperately want to do something, anything to stop this from happening. But the world fades into a sea of white, my flesh and bones aching as my view shifts and turns. Through my blurred vision, I can see the two cops running toward us, guns drawn, but they’re too late.
“Daddy’s here, honey,” Colby says to Luna.
“What’s wrong with Mama?” she wails.
“She’s gonna be fine, I promise. Let’s get you home.”
“Stop,” I moan, but the man roughly shoves me in the passenger seat of his car while I hear my kids in the backseat with Colby. “Stop…”
“Drive! NOW!” Colby snaps at my kidnapper.
“Relax, it’s done,” the guy says, getting behind the wheel. “Those two will never catch up to us.”
I’m as limp as a wet noodle, unable to do anything while Colby’s henchman drives off with us.
I think of Wyatt, on his way over to the gelato shop.
He won’t replace us there. He won’t replace us anywhere.
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