Chapter Eight
The sirens woke Rachel from the slump she’d regressed to. Knowing she could do nothing about the past, she shied away from the pain. Thankfully, her mind took her to the vast number of things she needed to take care of rather than remembering the shame of those lost days.
Thankful that Lance would be there to help her through all of the hassles of dealing with a death in the family is what kept her from totally losing it.
A knock on the window brought her out of herself, and she opened the car door and stepped out to see a middle-aged, haggard-looking woman standing there, her face filled with grief.
“Do you have someone in the building too?”
“Yes. My husband.” Rachel spoke gently. Seeing the other woman’s sadness reminded her that she wasn’t the only person suffering because of this tragedy.
“I’m sorry. I thought that was the case when I saw you here before.
But when you disappeared yesterday, I got worried that he might have been one of the last three bodies to be retrieved.
I’ve been back and forth since the building fell.
In fact, I’d planned to visit my daughter that day except she’d called to say don’t come.
She had a visitor and didn’t want me interrupting.
” The once striking lady with auburn hair, blue eyes, and a slim build gave Rachel food for thought. Could she be Lily’s mother?
“Mrs. Freemont?”
Backing up a step, the woman shook her head. “Mrs. Freemont is my daughter’s married name. I’m Mrs. Rawlins. Hannah Rawlins.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Mrs. Rawlins seemed disturbed before blurting out, “I don’t understand. The officer told me your name was Rachel Marks, the same name of the man they suspect was with my daughter when the building collapsed. Was he your ex?”
“No. We weren’t separated.”
“Which means Lily was up to her old tricks… carrying on with a married man.” Mrs. Rawlin’s face turned whiter, which seemed impossible since she’d been pale from the beginning.
Suddenly, hiding her face, shoulders shaking, her voice sounded weak.
“Oh, God, I’m so ashamed. For Lily. Can you ever forgive her? My daughter had a problem.”
“Had? You know she’s dead? Have they found her body?”
“No. But they say no one could have survived this long. Which makes me believe they’re both gone. We have to accept it.”
“Yet I can’t seem to do that. And I haven’t a sane explanation, other than to say that I’ve felt him near me, almost as if he were talking to me.”
Stunned, the other woman stared into Rachel’s face, her hopes suddenly lifting. “You have? Since they were together, it might mean they’re both alive.”
Rachel reached out to touch the other woman’s arm. “No. I’m not saying that. Hell, I don’t really know what I’m saying. The responders told me it would be a miracle for anyone to be alive. But I guess… I guess maybe I believe in miracles.”
“Thank you. I needed to hear those words. I’m alone now, my husband passed a few years back.
That’s why I was so determined to get Lily the help she needs.
I can afford to pay for it with the money the old miser wouldn’t let me use before.
” Seeing Rachel’s shock, Mrs. Rawlins spoke quickly.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. John, my husband, was a good man and a good father.
At first, he did everything he could to help Lily, but we failed, and he gave up, forcing me to do the same.
But now that I’m in charge of the funds, I’m willing to do more for my poor girl. ”
Rachel, seeing the other woman’s desperate need to talk, offered a solution. “Would you like to go for coffee, maybe have lunch?” She hadn’t been eating much herself, but Mrs. Rawlins looked drawn and famished from lack of nourishment.
“Yes. I would like that. And please… call me Hannah.”
“I’m Rachel.” She left her vehicle to take the place next to the sickly woman, even taking her arm to help and guide her.
In a short while, Rachel opened the door to a small, local café and led the way to a booth, urging Hannah to take a seat.
When the waitress offered menus, she nodded, “Yes, please and coffee.” After seeing Hannah’s nod of agreement, she held up two fingers. “Make that two coffees.”
Surreptitiously looking over her menu at the other woman, the thought hit Rachel as to why in all that’s holy would she be having lunch with the mother of the woman who stole her husband from her? Not true! Don’t bullshit yourself.
Right. Correcting that notion, she admitted that Lily hadn’t stolen anything. Damon was a full-grown man, making his own choices. And he’d decided that Rachel and his family weren’t enough to keep him from cheating.
Suddenly, the strong smells of food cooking in the café made her mouth water, and her hunger became palpable.
Bringing her attention back to the menu, she saw they listed a clubhouse sandwich, her go-to whenever she couldn’t decide what else to have.
Probably unable to concentrate, Hannah decided to order the same.
Left alone with Hannah, Rachel felt suddenly weird and sensed the other woman suffered from the same emotion. Breaking the uncomfortable silence, she decided to tackle the situation head on. “Your Lily and my Damon were together. And I believe this has being going on for some time.”
Breathing deeply, Hannah’s weak smile showing how thankful she was that Rachel had opened the subject, Hannah rubbed at the evident pain in her forehead and agreed.
“Yes. I was aware she’d met another man.
Only this time, I sensed a difference in the relationship.
Something I had to dig out of Lily. She loved your Damon.
I mean truly loved him. He wasn’t like the others. ”
Hearing that Damon had been loved soothed an ache inside Rachel, a relief that someone had cared about the man she’d turned away from… grown to dislike. “Others?”
“Men. Lots of men. To ease her strange and endless appetites. It’s a long story.”
“She sounds very… ahh, disturbed. I’m sorry, I don’t mean any disrespect.”
“None taken.” Hannah patted Rachel’s hand. “You’re a nice woman, willing to talk with me. I would understand if you hated me because of Lily.”
“Of course, I don’t. We can’t live another person’s life, nor should we be held responsible for their choices. Especially if they’ve been hurt by others.”
“I tried to tell my husband that, but he gave up and refused to listen. You see, my Lily had been abducted when she was ten years old.”
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.” The image of her ten-year-old Rosie appeared, and Rachel sent a prayer of thankfulness for her innocent, beautiful child.
Once started, Hannah seemed unable to stop.
“It was a horrible time. The men who took her were human traffickers. You see, we’d been in a small village in Mexico for a summer holiday when Lily went missing.
The local police were aware of the problem and tried to help us as best they could but they were pretty much ineffectual.
What destroyed us both was the fact that Lily hadn’t been the only tourist who’d been abducted.
There were more than a dozen that year. Yet after weeks of searching, they found nothing.
At our wits end, we returned to the States and hired a private detective firm that specialized in missing children, especially those taken in Mexico. ”
“How long before Lily came home?”
“Three years. The longest years of my life. When they dropped her off, she recognized us but was never the same. She’d become the girl trained by animals to do awful, disgusting things to stay alive.”
“My God. One hears about such horrors but seldom faces it in reality. Did you send her to a psychologist?”
“For years. I thought they’d helped her move forward. And I guess they did. But she could never forget. And so she got into trouble… over and over.”
“I can imagine. Poor thing. Was she ever able to tell you about those times?”
“One night, when she’d overdosed for the second time, she ended up in the hospital also with broken bones and terrible bruises.
That’s when she admitted that the scum who stole her childhood had been paid by the men who beat her before having their way.
Now she let others do the same to her and couldn’t seem to stop.
” Unable to restrain her sobs, Hannah hid her face in shaking hands.
“My God, can you imagine what it’s like to hear your own child tell you she suffered through such things? ”
Rachel reached across to touch Hannah’s shoulder.
Her hands rubbed harder as the other woman described visions no woman should have to hear about her daughter.
When Rachel couldn’t stand to listen anymore, her grip tightened, and Hannah seemed to understand.
“I’m sorry. You don’t want to listen to such filth.
I get carried away sometimes… or so my shrink warns me. ”
“I’m sorry too. Look, I can’t understand what you must be going through. I’m not sure I can even go there to try. But I do feel awful about what happened to your Lily.”
Hannah lifted her face to stare into Rachel’s eyes.
“Please don’t hate her. Those beasts broke something inside of my little girl.
As much as Lily searched, she never found peace.
Until she met Damon. The only time I ever heard her sound even slightly normal, even happy, were these last few months. ”