Forty-Five | Dom
Forty-Five
Dom
The drive had taken longer than I expected, with the recent snowstorm causing some delays and making parts of the highway hard to navigate. Keith had pulled up the clinic's address and entered it into the van’s GPS so we didn’t have to worry about connecting his phone, which had come in handy.
The van was a rental someone on his team had acquired in case we needed to get out of Timber Falls in a hurry without being tracked.
Thankfully, it came in handy for our impromptu trip and was rather comfortable.
I knew that Jo was already a mother to a teenage girl, but that didn’t stop me from picturing us in the future with a minivan packed full of kids—including Kaitlyn—traveling the world and living our best lives.
I slowed down as we approached Junction Pass, mindful of the reduced speed limit and of staying under the radar. I had been good about not drawing any attention to us the entire drive out and had consistently checked to make sure no one had followed us.
A worn-out sign sat in front of a rundown hotel on the corner of the street that read Welcome to Junction Pass. I looked at Jo in the mirror, watching as she stared out the window, taking everything in.
I didn’t know much about the time she had been here, other than the details she had shared with us about coming to the clinic and having Kaitlyn.
I continued driving, focusing on each stop sign and obeying traffic laws as I turned down a few different streets until we stopped in front of a building that looked abandoned.
I glanced at the dashboard screen, noting the pinpoint marking that we had arrived at our destination.
Jo unbuckled and leaned forward, staring at the faded brick walls.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “This is it. This is the clinic where I had Kaitlyn.”
I reached forward and pressed the dashboard screen button to exit the map.
“We don’t have to rush,” I assured her. “We can sit here for as long as you need.”
“Yeah, there’s no pressure to go inside,” Ashley said sweetly, leaning in to wrap her arm around Jo’s shoulder, being mindful of her injury.
“I can’t believe it. I didn’t think I would ever see this place again. It looks exactly how I remembered it.”
We sat quietly in the van, giving Jo the time she needed to process everything before going inside.
I wasn’t sure that Jo was ready to take that step because everything had happened so quickly.
She went from having breakfast and watching TV to finding out where her daughter was and taking an impromptu road trip to see her.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Jo whispered, her hands shaking slightly as she sat back in her seat. “Maybe it’s better if we leave and pretend this never happened.”
“It’s absolutely your call,” I said softly, my eyes immediately shifting to the door that had been propped open just enough for someone to look out and stare at us. “But you’re going to have to decide quickly because we have an audience.”
The door opened wider as another woman pushed through. She was heading straight toward the van but stopped abruptly when she looked inside and spotted Jo.
“That’s Dr. Easton,” Jo whispered.