Chapter 30
NOELLE
“She’s still asleep.”
Mom’s statement was a whisper from the kitchen doorway. She stood there, tears in her eyes, hands clasped together. She spoke quietly, as if she didn’t want Dad to overhear, although Dad had stomped back to the Jeep minutes ago and hadn’t said a word to me on the way out.
Mom looked so small, standing there like a rabbit, terrified and stressed.
Next, she’d return to Dad, and then he’d probably lambaste her for the rest of the night for taking too long, or breaking their promise to pretend Lily didn’t exist, or whatever heinous action he’d pretend she did to offend him.
He embarrassed me.
I set aside Grandmother’s favorite wooden spoon, wiped my hands on her old apron, and turned to face Mom with Grandma-given courage.
“Thank you,” I said. Mom had rarely been outwardly or physically affectionate because Dad didn’t like it, but I still felt the urge to hug her. She radiated wariness, so I satisfied myself with standing a little closer.
Mom swallowed hard. “I need to go, Noelle, but good luck. Thank you for letting me hold Lily.”
She turned and dodged for the front door. She was through it, and had it shut, almost before I could comprehend that she left. The Jeep headlights were already on, signaling that Dad was clearly waiting for her, as she climbed in. They peeled away. I watched them go, bemused and ruffled.
It had taken me a while to wrap my head around their unexpected arrival, but now this? It added a wrinkle in everything I had already smoothed out. Sighing, I returned to the kitchen.
Well, at least Lily could sleep through it.
Twenty minutes later, the boys tromped into the kitchen after they finished carrying the last load of drywall.
Snow flurries dusted their shoulders, wetted their hair.
Wyatt laughed when Cody playfully shoved him, and he stumbled into the wall.
Cade followed behind them, brow raised in my direction.
“Gone,” I mouthed.
His eyes skimmed the room, narrowing. Eventually, he nodded. Cody draped his coat over the back of a chair near the fire, while Wyatt cracked a joke about working with frost-bitten toes. I cocked my head to the hallway.
“Where’s Lily?” Cade asked.
Good question. She was normally up by now.
Her evening nap, if she had one, was shorter. I left the rowdy boys at the table, where I’d just set the last of their ham-and-potatoes dinner, and crept into the hallway. A feeling crawled up my throat that I didn’t like, so I moved a little faster.
Why wasn’t Lily crying out? She didn’t sit quietly after she woke up; she protested until someone picked her up. I intentionally made noise as I opened her bedroom door. My rising heart lodged firmly in my throat when my eyes arrested on the crib.
The empty crib.
“Lily?”
I rushed over, fussed with the blankets. Of course she wasn’t hiding beneath. She wasn’t here. Not on the floor, the closet. Nowhere. I shoved aside stuffies and clean clothes in a basket with a whimper.
“Lily?”
My call was stupid; she couldn’t respond. Or maybe she could, if she heard my voice. Where would Mom have put her? She said she was asleep. I hadn’t . . .
My blood ran cold.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
My gaze shot up to the window. Two little knick-knacks on the sill had been swept to the side, away from the opening.
I rushed to it, hardly understanding why, to find a set of footprints beneath Lily’s window.
They stretched to and from the main walkway, leading all the way to the driveway, where the Jeep had parked half an hour ago.
Lily.
Lily.
The scream tore from my throat.
“Cade!”
Cade arrived in seconds, Wyatt and Cody hot on his heels. He calmly took in my blabbering, the empty room, my gestures to the window where the footprints remained. He crossed the room, brought me into his arms, and looked outside.
“Take a breath, Noelle. We’re going to find her.”
He spun, keeping me with him. His voice rumbled as he commanded Wyatt.
“Call 911, and ask if they can send Hernandez. Tell them that we need a deputy at the house. There’s been an infant abduction.” He turned to Cody. “Get the trucks warmed up just in case we need to go scout for Noelle’s parents.”
They scattered.
I pulled my breath through a narrowed airway, forcing my initial hysteria to calm. Cade grabbed my arms, brought my eyes to his.
“They’re not far, Noelle. They left, what? Half an hour ago?”
I nodded.
“They’re probably going to try to take her home. We’ll figure this out, all right?”
A whistle of wind drew my eyes outside, to the gusts skittering past and blowing through. Disbelief swept my words away. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Mom had done this.
She’d taken Lily.
This whole visit had been a setup. No wonder Mom had been so upset, so avoidant, and left so quickly.
All this time, she knew she’d stab me in the back and take my child.
Is that why Dad had gone downstairs? Did he try to distract Cade, or make noise?
He must have met Mom at the window right before they departed . . .
The thought of them passing Lily through the window made me want to throw up. What if they dropped her? They didn’t have a car seat! They’re driving in weather like this? They could get in an accident and—
I cut the thought off.
How ironic. The one set of grandparents I felt certain would never take her, had taken her. All my anxiety had been directed toward the wrong people.
What did that say?
Cade squeezed my arms gently, withdrawing me from the windstorm in my brain. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, set his jaw.
“We’ll find her, Noelle. I promise. That baby girl isn’t going anywhere but back into our arms.”
He slipped out of the room, barking new orders to the boys.