Chapter Eighteen
Melissa
February 7, 2025, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
It had been fifteen days.
Fifteen days since I had heard from Dante. Fifteen days since I had decided to disappear with Dani. Fifteen days since I had referred every patient I had to other doctors and therapists. Fifteen days since I had decided to sell my practice.
I had waited long enough.
The wait was over. I didn’t know what had happened. Were they alive? Had the table found Danny? Had Dante gotten in the way and forced them both to leave their daughter an orphan?
Four days ago, I received a note in my mailbox at the office. It hadn’t come through the postal service. There was no stamp. No return address. It had been shoved through the crack, falling to the ground when I opened the box. I would have missed it had Dani not been standing at my feet.
She picked it up and held it for me. When I opened the note and read the words, I wasn’t sure what to think. It wasn’t threatening in its definition. Just three simple words.
I love her!
I looked through the glass doors to the sidewalk outside and wondered if the note was from Dante. Had he been compromised and unable to use the phone? But then how would he get a note to me? If he was here, why not just show himself?
Unless he was followed.
He must believe it wasn’t safe to bring attention to Dani. Crumbling the note into my pocket, I lifted Dani, settling her on my hip as I grabbed the rest of the mail to explore upstairs in my office.
Entering my office, nothing looked disturbed. Everything was in its place, but something felt off. Without any evidence to the contrary, I was forced to go on about my day, meeting with my sessions while Dani played in the background.
Two days later, there was another note. Again, stuffed through the crack of the mailbox. Like the first one, it wasn’t threatening in nature, given the circumstances surrounding my life at the moment.
This one also felt like maybe it was Dante trying to contact me. Assuring me Dani was safe. That we were being watched over. Could I take the chance that I was wrong?
I miss her!
Picking up Dani, I walked to the large glass doors that led outside. Looking through the panes, I assessed the world around us. There didn’t appear to be anyone sinister lurking around the corner. No men in trench coats hiding a gun that would then be used to force Dani and I into a vehicle.
My imagination was getting away from me. Dante had told me Danny thought of and planned for every contingency. Surely, he would have made other arrangements to get word to me if something happened.
Dani and I made our way upstairs and when I walked into my office, I knew something was different. Dani wiggled to get down and play, but I held her tight against me. Until I figured out what was different, I refused to take a chance with Dani’s life.
For thirty minutes I walked around my office, trying to see anything out of place. Everything was where it should be. But the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
The knock on my door caused me to scream and squeeze Dani tight. Turning around, Detective Henderson stood in my doorway.
“I apologize, Miss Jefferson. I did not intend to frighten you.”
“It is Dr. Jefferson, Detective. What are you doing here?”
I shifted Dani onto my hip, once again preventing her from standing on her own. My last interaction with the detective hadn’t been pleasant, and I was convinced this one wouldn’t go much different. Dani had become a security blanket of my own. I found it easy to keep my temper in check when she was in my arms.
“I am sorry to bother you again, Dr. Jefferson. I just had a few more questions about the case I am working on.” He turned to look at the door he had come through. “Is your secretary out?”
“My assistant is coming in shortly.”
It was a lie. I had told Mindy to work from home while things were up in the air with Dani. As far as she knew, I was out of town with a family emergency.
But the misogynistic asshole didn’t need to know that.
“Anyway, I just had a few more questions about”—he opened his notebook to read off a name—“Miss Christine Meadows. You were the psychologist on her case?”
“Yes.”
“What can you tell me about the child—” He looked down again and something felt off. “Here it is, Caylee Meadows.”
“Detective, I filed my reports with the police department and the courts. There isn’t much I can tell you beyond what has already been established.”
“Pardon my ignorance, Dr. Jefferson, but your report is filled with medical jargon that, quite frankly, is hard to understand. I was hoping you could put it in layman’s terms for me.”
“Caylee Meadows was severely abused both physically and sexually. She was neglected by her mother until a neighbor called the police when Caylee wouldn’t stop crying. At five years old, Caylee weighed only twenty-five pounds. Her speech was severely delayed, and she exhibited the emotional and mental capacity of a two-year-old.”
“And you felt you were experienced enough to recommend her removal from her mother?”
“Detective, I will do you one better. Since you have some difficulty with the medical jargon as you call it. A ten-year-old child is experienced enough to recommend Caylee be removed from her mother.”
“Now, Miss Jeff—”
“It is DR. Jefferson. I am a board-certified clinical psychologist with a doctorate in pediatric emotional trauma and rehabilitation. I have spent the better part of a decade training to be able to diagnose and treat emotional and sexual trauma among minors. There are medical reports that show the physical and sexual trauma Caylee endured as well as a signed confession from her mother admitting that she was neglectful and abusive, allowing the men she had traipsing through her home to have free rein over her child. So do not stand there and question my education and experience. I may be the youngest psychologist in my field, but I have studied and learned from the best. I assure you that removing Caylee from her mother’s care was the least that little girl deserved, and for you to suggest otherwise leads me to believe maybe you are a little too far removed from the situation.”
The detective sneered at me and asked, “What are you implying?”
“I am not implying anything. I am telling you to get the fuck out of my office.”
My insides were shaking. My heart was frantic inside my chest. Dani laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her little arms around my neck. I knew she could feel the tension that turned my body to stone.
The detective looked at the child in my arms and I tightened my hold on her. With one last sneer in my direction, he stormed out, slamming the door behind him, and I sank down on to the couch, clutching Dani to my chest.
It was time to go.
That encounter from two days ago still had me on edge, so when I opened my mailbox today I planned for the note.
Only there wasn’t one.
Carrying Dani into the elevator, I spoke softly to her as we rode up through the floors.
“Today is the last day, sweetie. Tomorrow we are taking a trip.”
She smiled at me as she ate the cookie I gave her when we got out of the car. She was still small and underweight, so I figured anything I could do to help her put on some pounds wouldn’t hurt.
Walking out of the elevator, I was thumbing through the mail and didn’t see the note until I was standing at the door to my office.
I know the truth.
Opening my door, I placed my hand on the back of Dani’s head and pushed her face into my neck. My office had been destroyed. I didn’t know how someone had gotten in. The door was locked when I opened it.
I looked around, and the pillows and couch cushions were slashed open, stuffing falling out over the floor. My desk had been upturned, the drawers pulled out and thrown around the room.
The bookshelves holding books and puzzles and other small toys had been pushed over and smashed. Like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.
My file cabinets lay open, file folders and papers strewn everywhere. I looked at the note in my hand again.
I know the truth.
What truth?
Looking down at Dani, I made a decision.
The office was gone. Whatever the perpetrator was looking for, they didn’t find. I didn’t keep files in my filing cabinets for this very reason. They were for show.
Zach kept my files on a secure server only he and I had access to. Dani’s files hadn’t even been uploaded there. They were all on a small drive hidden in a keychain attached to my car keys.
I closed the door and locked it once again. Mindy would eventually come in looking for me. I had emailed her last night, letting her know I would be closing my practice. I had already moved all my patients to other qualified colleagues in preparation.
I had decided to take Dani and run. Disappear. I didn’t know if Danny and Dante were ok, but Danny was smart enough to find me if they survived. The promise I made to Dante to protect his daughter was my only concern now.
Leaving my office in its current state, we re-entered the elevator. I pressed the button for the parking garage and when the elevator opened again, I quickly hit the button on my key fob and started my car.
Buckling Dani into her seat, I climbed into the driver’s seat, hitting the locks. I didn’t know who was leaving the notes, but it wasn’t Dante. Dante would not have demolished my office the way it had been.
Whoever had done it, had done it in a rage. Someone was angry. The question was, what were they angry about?
I drove home, trying to keep a nice steady speed. I didn’t want to attract attention. Pulling into my driveway I turned off the engine and sat for a minute, allowing my heartbeat to slow.
Once I felt a semblance of calm, I stepped out on the driveway and quickly removed Dani from her seat. I walked hesitantly to the front door. We had only left the house forty-five minutes ago. Closing my eyes as I turned the lock, I anticipated a sight similar to my office.
When I finally opened my eyes after opening the door, I was relieved to see nothing had been done. I closed and locked the door, not taking any chances with our safety. Without knowing who had left the notes and who had entered my locked office, I no longer felt safe anywhere.
I quickly grabbed our bags, stacking them up by the door. I had planned to pack the car tonight while Dani slept, but plans changed all the time.
We learned to adapt.
Once the bags were stacked, I unlocked the door and moved them to the porch. Continuing to move in stages. I didn’t feel comfortable letting Dani leave my side. So, we stepped out on the porch and I sat her on a step while I stacked the bags a third time at the bottom of the steps.
One more time and we would be ready to go. Lifting Dani to my hip, one by one I took the bags and set them in the trunk. Keeping her against my body, the only place I felt she was safe. I was thankful I made the decision to get an SUV rather than a car. This would be much more comfortable for traveling.
I had considered getting a new car under my new name, but decided to wait until it was necessary. No one knew I was leaving. It would be at least a week or two before Mindy realized something had happened. By then, she would call, and I would act surprised when she told me the state my office was in when she found it. Assuring her all was well when I left.
With the bags settled in the back of the vehicle, I buckled Dani back into her car seat and climbed in myself, starting the car.
I sat for just a minute as I looked at my home.
I had worked hard for that house. That’s all it was. A house. I knew that now. Looking in the rearview mirror at the little blonde-headed girl smiling back at me, I understood what a home really was. It wasn’t the wood and nails that surrounded you. It was the love you shared with the people in your life.
As I put the car in reverse, I backed out of the driveway, silently saying goodbye to my old life.
“Alright, baby girl. Let’s start our new life. Just you and me.”