That really only left one option.
The cops.
He had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that said it was indeed the police who had breached his house and set off his alarm.
That was his worst nightmare. If the police had stumbled upon his houseguests, then it was all over. They would take his girls away.
What would become of them? They needed him.
What would become of him without them? He needed them.
They would go back to their families he presumed, but would they miss him? One of them had only been with him for a few days, but the other had been with him a very long time, and he had to believe that life without him would be difficult for her. Impossible even.
It would certainly be difficult for him. He couldn’t imagine life without them. What would he do with himself? Tending to his girls was the highlight of his day. It was his whole reason for living. It was the center of everything he did. If he could spend every day at home with them he would, but he couldn’t. He had to go to work, he had to earn a living so that he could support his family.
And that was how he thought of them, as his family. He loved them, they were everything to him, they were all he had. There was so much he still needed to teach them, so many lessons they had to learn.
But now it was all over.
His home had been compromised, and he couldn’t go back, so he had to decide what he was going to do. Where did he go from here? In this moment he thanked his mother, the obsessive planner, that he had pre-prepared a number of scenarios in case he was ever placed in this position.
He didn’t have to go back to his house, he wanted to, with every fiber of his being he wanted to, but there was nothing there other than his girls that he couldn’t live without. He had access to bank accounts, a car, and another house to live in. He was prepared, had a plan, and ,was confident the police wouldn’t be able to identify him, so why didn’t he feel happier, more content?
Because the one thing he wanted he had lost.
He would gladly give up everything else if he could just have his girls. Live in the middle of nowhere with basically nothing if it meant being able to keep them.
But he couldn’t. Somehow, he was going to have to find a way to go on without them.
With a trembling hand, he reached over and picked up his phone. He stared at it for a good five minutes before getting up enough courage to turn off the alarm.
That was the first step taken.
Next, he opened his car door, climbed out, and walked into work.
That was the second step taken.
Perhaps if he just took things one step at a time, he would be able to do this.
* * * * *
12:21 P.M.
Matthew had been sitting watching her since she had been tucked into a bed and settled in a quiet hospital room. He hadn’t left Grace’s side as she had been transported in an ambulance and treated in the emergency room. She hadn’t woken up again, but the doctors hadn’t seemed to be overly concerned about that. She was quite badly dehydrated so there was an IV in the back of her left hand, delivering fluids to her parched body. A couple of the bloody welts on her back were infected, so she was also receiving antibiotics. Her back had been cleaned and bandaged, and now she appeared to be resting peacefully.
As he watched her, he tried to imagine the horror that she had endured. Matthew had looked up the case file from her abduction, so he knew the basics. Taken from her home while cooking dinner one night, there had been blood on the floor, and he assumed the pale pink scar on her right temple was from the blow that had knocked her unconscious.
Did she know how much time had passed? How had she survived? She had obviously been physically hurt. Had she also been sexually abused? He found it hard to believe she hadn’t been, but he wouldn’t get any answers until she woke up.
He hoped she woke before her brother arrived. He feared that once her family was around her, she would be less likely to speak about what she had endured, and he needed to know what had happened to her if they were going to find the man who had hurt her.
All of a sudden, Matthew sensed that Grace had woken. She hadn’t moved, her eyes hadn’t opened, her even rhythmic breathing hadn’t changed, but it was like he could feel the change in her.
Standing, he leaned over the bed and made sure to keep his voice calm and soothing. “It’s okay, Grace, you're in the hospital.”
At his words, her eyes opened slowly as though her lids were very heavy, and lifting them required great effort. Her gaze flitted around the room and then settled on him. He didn’t think she would remember him, she’d been conscious for only a few seconds when they had been together, but she whispered his name.
“Yes, you haven’t been alone. I've stayed with you.” It seemed important that she knew she was no longer on her own. He had expected her to cry, be emotional, or hysterical, but somehow, she managed to remain controlled. No doubt a trick she had learned that had helped her survive. When you were fighting for your life, you didn't always have the luxury of emotion.