Chapter 5 - The Confrontation and the Escape
Ray’s interest in me changed after he realized I was documenting.
The first confrontation happened in the warehouse office.
“You’re going through records that aren’t yours.”
“They have my daughters’ names on them.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“Then let me take my girls and leave.”
“You don’t understand how unstable your situation looks.”
“I have a job offer.”
“No permanent housing.”
“I can get housing if you return my documents.”
He smiled.
Not cruelly.
That was worse.
“Emily, nobody is against you.”
I stopped arguing.
That frightened him more.
The next week, he tried to take Maddie to another placement house.
Lily stood between them.
Ray reached around her.
She stumbled.
Her arm hit the edge of a metal shelving unit.
She screamed.
I ran in.
Ray insisted she had fallen.
Clara said Lily was becoming “behavioral.”
I looked at my daughter’s arm.
Swelling already beginning.
“Hospital.”
“No.”
Clara said it too quickly.
I knew.
I also knew I had no time.
That night, while everyone slept, I set Lily’s coat on my lap.
Wrote the note.
Sewed it into the lining.
Then I told her something I will regret until I die.
“If I tell you to run with Maddie, you run.”
Lily stared at me.
“What about you?”
“I’ll come.”
“What if you don’t?”
I forced myself to smile.
“I will.”
She knew it was a lie.
Children know.
Two nights later, Ray took me to the storage warehouse because he wanted me to show him which files I had copied.
Clara stayed with the girls.
I told Ray the backups were in the warehouse.
They weren’t.
I had already mailed one set to a post-office box under my sister’s name.
But I needed him away from the house.
At 7:20, Clara arrived at the warehouse with both girls.
That had not been the plan.
She was frightened.
Said somebody from the county had called asking about program placements.
Ray blamed me.
They argued.
I used the noise.
I whispered to Lily:
“Now.”
My daughter took Maddie.
She left through the side loading door.
Ray realized three minutes later.
He locked me in the back office and drove after them.
Lily reached the frontage road.
Then the interstate.
Barefoot because one shoe came off in mud.
Broken arm.
May you like
Baby sister in the good one.
That was how Daniel found them.
