Chapter 15
Mikey stumbles forward, steadying himself as he turns back to where Liz stands. Both men stare in horror at the gun placed against her temple, her finger resting against the trigger.
Liz watches them, her heart shattering in her chest at the sheer panic etched onto their faces. They will never forgive her for what she is about to do and she will never forgive herself for forcing them to witness it.
“What the fuck is going on?” Mikey shouts, frantically looking at Riley, hoping he has some sort of answer.
“Just put down the gun. Talk to me, love. Please… Just talk to me,” Riley pleads.
“We were trying to help you, Liz,” Mikey says, voice low, fear lacing every word. “For weeks I have been trying to confirm your story, trying to get you free.”
“I just wanted to leave, and you wouldn’t let me, and now he’s back. Why couldn’t you just let me go?” Liz asks, tears forming a steady stream down her face.
Riley takes a small step toward her, then another.
Her hand starts to shake. The only thing keeping her from pulling the trigger is the devastation in Riley’s eyes.
“We’re trying,” he says, daring to take another step.
“We have spent all of our free time trying to find out anything about you we can, but you haven’t been very open about your past. I know there are things you want to keep from us, and that’s okay…
But it makes things harder.” His voice raises slightly.
Her eyes snap to his. He has never felt so awful for yelling at someone.
Riley looks into her emerald eyes and all he sees is anguish.
“I just want to be with them,” Liz says, barely more than a whisper. “I just want to be with them again and everyone keeps stopping me.”
It’s then they realize she’s talking about going home to her husband, and the child she was ripped away from.
They hadn’t really stopped to think about the extent she would go to get back to her family.
She never spoke about them and the few times she did it wasn’t much.
Liz never even told the men their names.
Liz closes her eyes and takes a shuddering breath.
Terrified, watching her finger tremble against the trigger, Riley rushes a few steps closer.
Mikey stays on the other side of the room, leaving his hands up in surrender, trusting Riley knows what he’s doing.
“We just need more time,” Mikey says, trying to get Liz’s attention on him and away from Riley who is still inching his way to her.
“But if you do what you’re thinking about doing, you will never get to be with your family again. ”
Liz looks at him, then to Riley, seeing the fear on their faces. She knows that look, she’s had the same one. It’s the look of a person losing someone they care about. She can’t stop the agonizing sound that comes out of her, tears forming a steady stream down her face as she says through her sobs—
“This is the only way I will ever get to be with them again.”