Page 73 of Montana Justice

“I tried to minimize?—”

“Minimize? You think that makes it better?” I slammed my palm against the wall. “You sat at my table, slept in my bed, smiled at my friends, all while stabbing us in the back.”

“I didn’t have a choice!”

“Everyone has a choice. You could have trusted me. Could have told me the truth from the beginning.”

“You don’t understand?—”

“Then help me understand! Explain how you could do this. Make me understand how the woman I—” I bit off the words. “How you could betray everything I stand for.”

Part of me couldn’t wait for the elaborate lies that I knew would come out of her mouth. Something complicated and difficult to understand at first—some long story where the details were vague at best.

“Ray has our daughter!” The words exploded out of her, raw and desperate.

That was definitely not what I expected. “What?”

“Sadie. Our daughter. Your daughter.” Her voice cracked, body starting to shake violently. “Ray has her, and the only way I get to keep her alive is to do exactly what he says.”

“What?” I parroted, completely incapable of putting these pieces together.

“Twins.” The word came out as a wail. “I had twins. Caleb and then…Sadie.”

She dropped to her knees, as if standing was beyond her capacity. Her hands went to her hair, fingers tangling in the blonde strands, pulling hard enough that I winced.

“You’re lying.” She had to be lying.

But even as I said it, pieces clicked into place. Her panic attack at the barn. The name Sadie. The way she’d been so protective of Caleb, so terrified of leaving him with anyone.

And something I’d never told her; she probably had no idea. Twins ran in my family. My father had a twin sister.

“I have—I have a picture,” she gasped between hyperventilating breaths. Her whole body rocked back and forth, hands still twisted in her hair. “Just one. Just one picture of her.”

She fumbled for her phone with shaking hands, nearly dropping it twice. When she finally got it unlocked, she held it out to me, her arm trembling so badly I had to kneel and take it from her.

The photo showed a baby girl. Dark hair like Caleb’s, delicate features, clutching a stuffed elephant. My daughter. Another child I’d never known existed.

“What happened?” My voice came out strangled.

She was pulling at her hair again, hard enough that strands came loose in her fingers. “They were two months old, and he found me. Beat me unconscious. When I woke up, she was gone. He left me Caleb but said if I ever wanted to see my daughter again, I had to do exactly what he said.”

The last words came out as sobs. She wrapped her arms around her middle like she was trying to keep herself from flying apart.

I still couldn’t even wrap my head around all this.

“Every week,” she gasped, the words barely intelligible. “Every week, I gave Ray information. If it was good enough intel, he’d send a photo on an app that erased the pictures. Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to see my baby before it vanished. Thirty seconds to memorize how much she’d grown without me.”

I stood frozen, her phone still in my hand, watching her fall apart completely.

“You should have told me.” The words came out broken. “The moment you showed up with Caleb, you should have told me everything.”

“He said he’d kill her!” She was on her feet now, pacing frantically, pulling at her hair again. “He said if I breathed one word to you, if I tried to be clever, she’d disappear forever. And I believed him. I still believe him.”

“Piper—”

“Three months!” She screamed the words. “Three months since I’ve held her. Since I’ve smelled her hair or felt her weight in my arms. Do you know what that’s like? Do you?”

Her breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps, chest heaving like she couldn’t get enough air.

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