ELIZABETH
I acted like a total jerk to Dalton. After everything he had done for me the entire day until Eva was back in my arms, I pushed him away the second that things were safe. I can’t explain why I did it. I was emotionally tired and mentally spent after the day. Trying to wrap my head around my dad kidnapping my daughter was too much to handle. Dalton and I hadn’t even been dating that long and here I was bringing him down with my baggage. I moved away from my parents for this reason. I ditched my job and took a chance at the small-town life to get my daughter as far away from my dad and his drama as I could. None of that mattered though, it just followed me here.
When we were back in our apartment, I ran a bath for Eva and then she changed into sweatpants and the two of us climbed into her bed together. She didn’t ask for dinner, I knew she was going to wake up in the middle of the night hungry. I’d warm up some leftovers or maybe put together some boxed macaroni and cheese. I always had a few boxes on hand in case of emergency. I only wanted to hold her, but I ended up falling asleep for about an hour as well. I knew I owed Dalton an apology. I would have liked to do it in person, but it needed to be done today, this couldn’t wait.
Dalton said I could give him a call, so I went into the living room, pulled a blanket around for warmth, and pulled up his number. He answered on the first ring, “Hey.” It had only been a few hours and I already missed his voice.
“Hey, Dalton. Is Katie doing okay? I’m sure today was tough on her.”
“She’s okay. She had a good time with Hayes and did fell asleep too. She’s worried about Eva. She’s not the one I’m really worried about, Elizabeth, how’d Eva doing? Did you get her to talk at all?”
“We talked a bit while she was taking a bath. I didn’t want to ask too many questions considering that the police will probably ask everything over again tomorrow.” I sniffled, trying to hold back the tears once again, “I feel like this is all my fault.”
“Elizabeth, baby, don’t say that. You did your best to protect her from your dad. You had no way of knowing he’d pull some shit like this.”
“I should have known.”
“How could you?”
“I don’t know, Dalton, I’m her mother, I just should have done more to protect her. Maybe if I had told her more about her grandpa she would have known he was a bad person.”
I grabbed a tissue and dabbed the corner of my eyes while Dalton tried to soothe the pain that today has caused, “Shh, it’s going to be okay, Liz. All of that is in the past anyway. You have Eva back and we know that your dad isn’t going to bother with you again.”
“You’re right, I know you’re right, but damn it still hurts so badly.”
“Because our parents aren’t supposed to betray us in that way,” he stated with such boldness it actually took me by surprise.
“That was brutally honest.”
“And it is the truth. From everything you’ve told me about your parents, they did the opposite of what parents are supposed to do. You’re a mother, you would never treat Eva the way that your mom treated you. And you know me, I’d never put Katie through that. At the end of the day though, they’re your parents and you gave them the benefit of the doubt. Had you thought for a moment that he might come after Eva, what would you have done?”
“I mean, at the minimum I would have gotten an order of protection and hell, probably look into changing our names.”
“You’re a good mom, Elizabeth. Don’t ever forget that. Eva is so lucky to have you and she knows this. That’s why she was holding into you so tightly when they found her today. Because she loves you so fucking much.”
There was no holding back the tears now. Dalton was an amazing man for many reasons, but right now he was pulling me back together one piece at a time. The next time we were together, I was going to tell him that I loved him. Maybe he wasn’t ready to say it back, but I at least needed him to know how I felt.
“I needed to hear that right now, Dalton. Thank you.” I intended on saying more, but it was interrupted by an untimely yawn.
“You’re tired, Elizabeth, you need to get some sleep.”
“I wish you were here.”
“Me too, baby. Will you let me know when you head down to the station tomorrow? I’d like to go with. I can get somebody to watch Katie.”
“I’m going to call the police chief in the morning and then I’ll give you a call. Thank you, Dalton. For everything today, and for putting up with my crappy attitude,” I ended with a small giggle.
“We’re each allowed to have our moments. You’ve dealt with my grumpy attitude plenty.”
“And I still gave into you, didn’t I?”
“It’s my charm.” I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was smirking. That smirk always did it for me. “Good night, Elizabeth.”
“Good night, Dalton.”
—--
“Nathan,” Dalton was the first to his feet when the police chief came into the conference room that we were waiting in. We had been ushered in here right away to wait for Eva’s interview this morning. I was happy that we were here and not in one of the interrogation rooms that I had seen on TV. I guess it doesn’t make sense that they’d put her in one of those, she was the victim in this all.
They were allowing both Dalton and me to sit in on the entire interview, there were also fidget toys on the table. Eva was excited to pick up the giant unicorn pop-it mat. “Hi Eva, do you remember me from the hotel yesterday?” Nathan spoke in a soft, soothing voice to her.
Eva nodded her head, “You carried me out.”
“That’s right, I was one of the officers there. I’m going to ask you some questions about the time with your grandpa, did your mom tell you that?”
“She did. She said that I just had to tell the truth.”
“That’s exactly right, Eva. You need to know that anything you tell us will not get you in trouble. You’re not in trouble at all, we just need to know some information, okay?”
“Is my grandpa in trouble?” It was such an innocent question, I didn’t want to disappoint her or scare her by telling the truth.
Nathan looked in my direction, I could see he wanted me to take the lead when it came to this question. I didn’t blame him, part of this needed to come from me. “Eva,” she looked at me when I said her name, “Your grandpa has done some things in the past that weren’t good and some other things that weren’t legal. That was one of the reasons why I never told you much about him.”
“He told me that you’d say that and I wasn’t supposed to believe you. He said you just didn’t understand.”
I wanted to scream, but I used all my strength to keep my cool. Dalton put his hand on my leg and I gripped it, using his strength as well. “Can we start from the first time you met your grandpa, Eva?” I guess Nathan was going to take the questioning over again, thank goodness because I didn’t know what to say to her.
“He came to the fence at school. I didn’t know him so I wasn’t going to talk to him, but he knew my name. Mommy said before sometimes strangers can know your name, but then he knew my mom’s name too.”
“What else did he know?”
“He knew where we used to live and he had pictures.” She paused for a moment and looked over to me, “I’m sorry, Mommy. I know what you said, but he didn’t seem like a stranger. He had pictures of us together.”
“Wait,” I stopped her, “he had pictures of the two of you together?”
“Yeah, at the old house. I was little, but I knew it was me because I was holding my favorite unicorn animal.”
Nathan continued to ask her questions such as how often he was there and what they would talk about, but I was fighting to concentrate. How could my dad have pictures of the two of them together? My dad had been in prison and never met her. I didn’t even visit my dad and hardly saw my mom. It wasn’t possible these pictures could exist. She must have been mistaken by the unicorn she was holding.
After about a half-hour of asking and answering questions, I told Nathan that it was time for a break. He agreed that it would be a good idea for her to get up and walk around. Dalton volunteered to take her to the vending machine and get some candy. Eva wasn’t about to say no to that. Once Dalton had left, Nathan sat back down and shuffled some papers together. “Talk to me, Elizabeth.”
“Have you by chance seen any of these pictures?”
“We did clear out everything he had in the motel room and also confiscated his personal property. Most of it is with our investigators or locked into evidence for now. I haven’t looked at it, haven’t had a reason to do so yet. Why?”
“The picture she is talking about can’t exist.”
“Do you think she’s not remembering something correctly? She seemed to be very clear about it.”
“I know she did, which is why it is bothering me. My dad was in prison before Eva was born and we moved here before he was released. My mom accused me of keeping him away from her. He never met her. A picture of the two of them together shouldn’t exist.”
“Okay,” he jotted down something on a notepad. “So either the picture isn’t of the two of them or….I mean, I guess there isn’t an or.”
“Eva can recognize herself even in baby pictures. This is so confusing.”
“Let’s go with this, we can go ahead and pause questions for today. I’ll talk to my investigators and see if I can locate this picture and we can reconvene later to show her the pictures.”
“Yeah,” I nod, “I think that’s a good idea. Um, have they mentioned charges or arraignment at all?”
“The DA just arrived this morning to look over the evidence and he’ll be seen in front of a judge tomorrow. Did you want to be there?”
“Oh god no,” I replied too quickly. “I mean, no thanks, I don’t think I can see him right now. Will Eva have to testify?”
“For Eva’s sake, I hope not.” Maybe my father could do one decent thing in his life and not make my daughter take the stand against him. I wasn’t holding my breath though.