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Rebecca

The knock on the door comes after the thunderstorm is finally over.

I hadn’t been asleep exactly, but I was lying in my bed, waiting for Kiki to call and update me about Alice.

My baby. My poor baby. I should have gotten her that ear-tube surgery I read about online ages ago, but Gray hated doctors, especially specialists in the city.

Now I know he was probably wary of Alice having any kind of tests in a lab.

If it’s not too late we’ll do it now, as soon as possible. We’ll do all the things we couldn’t do because of him.

I haven’t gotten any phone calls or updates from Kiki about the infection, but the cell service is always spotty out here and the motel’s Wi-Fi has been out for hours.

I peel the curtain slightly aside and glance out the window to see the sweet old man from the front desk.

He brought me banana bread from his wife yesterday.

They’re both at least eighty and I doubt they recognize me, so I haven’t been as cautious as I planned.

I’ll be out of here soon, hopefully. Lizzie’s article paved the way.

God bless her and god bless Kiki for everything she’s doing.

Maybe she likes me more than I think she does.

Maybe she’s actually a friend. I love her and Juan Carlos, her partner.

They’ve kept my children safe this week at Juan’s mother’s house. I owe them everything.

I open the motel door for the owner with a smile.

His eyes dart from side to side before he’s shoved to the ground.

I reach out for him and when I step outside the room I see Marsden.

He sneers down at the man. “You never saw me here. Don’t bother to call the police.

They won’t help you. You know who I am, you know the power I have in this state.

You’ll forget this ever happened if you know what’s good for you.

” I look pleadingly at the man, but he can’t meet my eyes.

I know he’ll do exactly what Marsden says.

He scurries away on his hands and knees. Marsden turns to me.

“Get in my truck now, Rebecca. Don’t make a scene.”

I try to inch back into the room, but he grips my arm and growls into my ear. “I know where your children are.”

The words take a second to penetrate my brain, but when they do, they crush me. What choice do I have? I get in.

We drive into the darkness. He doesn’t speak to me, merely glowers in my direction. We’re a two-hour drive from the ranch and we’re heading that way, but who knows where he’s taking me. We could be going anywhere.

“How do you know where my children are? Have you hurt my kids, Marsden?” I scream. “What the hell have you done?” He doesn’t answer, merely smirks. He likes this.

Maybe I despise him even more than I hate my husband.

In some ways I think he turned Gray into the monster he became.

Or rather, they did it to each other. It was a chain reaction.

All the men out here perpetuated a toxic cycle, generation after generation.

It was Gray’s father and grandfather too.

It was Dr. Carmichael and the church elders.

They all fed both of those young boys a pack of lies about how the world worked.

How power and control worked. What they deserved and how they should do anything to get it.

Marsden’s words from the restaurant echo in my head now. I’ll destroy you .

He will. This man murdered my husband in cold blood. I know, because I watched it happen.