Locked Away (Ianthony)

Chapter 22

Things haven't been the same. We've been fighting for Hailie back for almost a month. Part of my body wants to give up, but my heart says no one will love that baby girl the way I do. And that's what I fear. I fear that she'll never come back to us and I won't be there to protect her. Everyday, I go upstairs to Hailie's room and sit. When I went up there today, something felt wrong. I looked around the room longer than I usually do. I opened up her drawers and looked around. I don't know what I was expecting to find, but my anxiety was rushing through my body. Anthony and I have anxiety... And mine is taking over in this moment. I reached into the next drawer and felt a lump where her favorite outfit was. I lifted her favorite Hello Kitty shirt and I damn near passed out. I shut the drawer after pulling the item in question out. I couldn't comprehend this. Why in Hailie's drawer. I walked downstairs, hearing Anthony come in the front door.

"Ian! I've got good news!" He said, setting his keys down. I left Hailie's room and hid what I found.

"I-I'll be down in a minute, I need to wash my face a bit." I said, shaking. I went into the bathroom and looked for my inhaler and my medicine. It was almost getting too late for my inhaler, I may have needed my EpiPen. I'm supposed to call 911 when I use that though. I took four puffs instead of two, hoping that would be enough. Once I took my anxiety medicine and calmed down, I went back into Hailie's room. I looked in the rest of her drawers for anything else. When I came to the last drawer, I found something even worse.

"Oh God," I whispered. I grabbed that and put that with the other thing. I came downstairs and Anthony beamed with joy.

"Ian. We're going to get Hailie back!" He said hugging me. I hugged back, emotionless. Emotionless, wow that's a lie. I had emotions. Inhumane emotions. "Isn't that great?" Anthony smiled.

"Lovely." I said, walking to the kitchen. I walked to the kitchen drawer. "I have a surprise for you, sit down at the table." I smiled. Anthony did as he was told and played on his phone. I left the kitchen. I sat and thought about what I was going to do, a little bit carefully. I walked back in and went back to the drawer. "Okay, close your eyes baby." I smiled, convincingly. Anthony smiled softly and closed his eyes.

"You're killing me here, babe." Anthony chuckled softly. I closed the drawer quietly.

"Keep them closed, no peeking." I smiled. I stood behind him and used my free hand to run it up and down his left arm. "You want me to hug you?"

Anthony cocked his head slightly. "Of course." He chuckled.

"Alrighty then." I smiled and wrapped both my arms around him. I grabbed his hair and pulled him backwards, holding a knife to his throat.

"Ian! What the fu-" he said panicked. He reached and grabbed my arms with both of his hands.

"Put your damn hands down, or I'll kill you." I said. Anthony began panicking. I didn't care. "What the hell have you been doing to our daughter?" I said coldly.

Anthony froze. I was going to get my damn answers.