Vanessa
With Opal home, Vanessa tried to maintain their normal schedule, but it was difficult. For one thing, Hunter was staying with them for added security. That alone put her on edge, because she was in the constant struggle of knowing they could never work, but still wanting him and needing him. Every night she found herself longing for him.
There was also the constant waiting. Every time she heard any sort of bang, she thought it was someone knocking on the door. It could be CPS, back to talk to Opal, or it could be Jeremy or one of his goons, coming to kill her or take Opal, or both. She slept little, though having Hunter in her bed helped.
Going to work and school was just as bad. Maybe worse. She couldn’t have an eye on Opal the whole day, but she felt confident in Mari and knew she’d keep her safe. But the class wasn’t with their teacher every second of the day. Hunter was nearby and watched the school. Even with all of that, Vanessa had to walk by Opal’s classroom many times a day to be comforted that she was still there and safe.
What was perhaps the most disturbing thing of all was the silence from every direction. The black van hadn’t returned, nor was there any other vehicle watching or following them. There had been no contact from Jeremy. CPS had not returned. The quiet, this sense of false peace made her uneasy. She waited for something to happen, and the more time that passed without incident, the more uneasy she became.
On the evening of the fourth day of silence, Vanessa stood in the kitchen, drying dishes and cleaning up after dinner. In the next room, she could hear Opal and Hunter.
“You cheated last time we played Candy Land!” Opal protested.
Hunter laughed. “I did not! The card said to take the shortcut.”
Opal harrumphed. “How come I never got the shortcut?”
“I don’t know. Maybe this time you will.”
“Okay. But I want to be the blue piece.”
“That’s fine,” Hunter said. “I’ll even let you go first.”
“Really?”
Vanessa could hear the excitement in Opal’s voice. She’d been having fun with him. She seemed to like him being there. It was moments like this that made her wonder. Having him there for the last four days, where his guns were mostly put away, where he sat and had dinner with them and played with Opal, it all seemed very cozy. He didn’t feel like a killer. He felt like he belonged there with them.
Why was it that the man she had feelings for, the one who made her feel so safe, who seemed to get along great with Opal, and who Opal liked back, the man who was ready to kill for her—and wasn’t just saying that—the man who had already protected her and taken care of her. This was the one man who seemed to have it all. Except he also had a dirty past and his present and future weren’t too clean, either. He was off limits. There was no way around it. She could enjoy him now, but their time would end, and she would have to say goodbye.
# # #
Hunter moved his game piece along the board. He never thought he’d actually enjoy playing a game like Candy Land. Not in a million years. He’d never planned to have kids of his own. But somehow, Opal made it fun. She put so much energy and excitement into each move, growing overjoyed when she got ahead, and sticking out her lower lip in a pout when she was behind. He almost threw the game just to see her grin, but it was just as much as fun to challenge her to a rematch if she lost.
He tried to talk to her, but she was harder to crack when it came to family life.
“So, what’s your daddy like?” he asked.
Opal shrugged. “I don’t see him anymore. Oh look, I got doubles!” She happily moved her game piece along the board.
“Did he ever hurt you?” Hunter could see Vanessa in the kitchen, cleaning up. They’d talked about this, though, and they needed to see what sort of things Opal would say so they could be prepared when Nicholas came back.
“Umm, I don’t know.” Opal’s face fell and she looked intently at her game piece. “I think it’s your turn.”
Every time he tried to get her to talk, she brought the subject back to the game. He decided to try a different method. Maybe if she felt more comfortable with him in general, she’d talk more.
“What’s your teacher like?” he asked.
A big grin stretched across her face. “Miss Snyder is the best. She’s so nice and fun, and always helps me understand math when it’s not making sense.”
“It never makes sense to me,” he confessed. “Too many numbers moving all around.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “I like reading better.”
“I always liked science. And gym class. Do you like gym?”
“Sometimes. Games are fun, but the boys can be mean.”
“Really?” He pretended to look surprised. This was the perfect in, though. This is what he’d been hoping for. “That’s not good. How are they mean?”
“They throw the ball too hard.”
“Did they ever hurt you?”
“Sometimes. I don’t like playing dodge ball with them. They’re not supposed to aim for the head, but they always do, and then when the gym teacher yells at them, they just say, ‘Oh, it was an accident, I didn’t throw it right.’ But they’re lying.”
“Lying isn’t good. Had anyone else ever hurt you?”
She shrugged again. “I guess.”
“Like your mommy or daddy?”
“Not really. I don’t know.”
“Not really?” He didn’t want to press her too hard, but he needed to know she would be able to talk to the CPS guy and tell him the truth. “It’s okay to tell the truth. No one here is going to hurt you.”
“I know that.”
“But did your daddy ever hurt you?”
She was quiet for a long time, then said, “Hey, when did you get the gumdrop card? I don’t remember that. Are you cheating?”
“Me? No way! I would never do that.” He flipped his cards over to show her the one with the little gumdrop. Maybe she would eventually see that she could trust him. But would she trust this Nicholas guy when he came back?
Later that night, he lay in bed beside Vanessa, talking about it. “I’m just worried she’ll do the same thing with Nicholas and not talk.”
“Hopefully when he comes back, and we’ll be there, we can help her tell the truth. If I’m saying it’s okay, that might make a difference. She doesn’t know you, so you saying it’s okay to tell the truth isn’t going to be as meaningful.”
“Right. I hope that’s all it takes.” He reached over to pull her close and kiss her.
On Saturday morning, after they’d finished breakfast, there was a knock at the door. Vanessa looked to Hunter with wide, terrified eyes. He waited for her to put the plan into place. Get Opal out of the room so he could answer the door, just in case it was Jeremy or someone coming to take her.
Vanessa took her into the bedroom and Hunter pulled out his gun, then loaded a bullet in the chamber. He stood facing the door and shouted, “Who is it?”
“Nicholas Johnson, from Child Protective Services.”
Hunter reset the gun and put it back in his pocket, then unlocked the door. He stuck out his hand to shake Nicholas’s. “Hiya,” he said. “Let me get Vanessa and Opal.”
Hunter closed the door behind Nicholas and called out for Vanessa as he went to the bedroom. “He’s here,” he said to her when he entered the room.
“Okay.” Vanessa blew out a breath. “Opal, a man is here to talk to you, okay?”
Opal looked confused, but Vanessa took her hand and led her out to the living room.
“You must be Opal,” Nicholas said, crouching down.
She nodded and put her hands behind her back.
“My name is Nicholas. Is it okay if we sit down and talk for a few minutes?”
Opal looked to Vanessa. “Go ahead, honey. You can sit down, and Mr. Johnson will just talk to you for a few minutes.”
Nicholas smiled at Vanessa. “Thanks.” He sat beside the Opal on the sofa.
“Make sure you tell Mr. Johnson the truth, okay?” Vanessa said. “It’s okay to tell him everything.”
Opal nodded.
Hunter stood by Vanessa’s side, across the room to give them some privacy.
“Can you first tell me your name?” Nicholas asked.
Opal’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “Opal Powers.”
“And who do you live with?”
“Mommy.”
“Where’s your daddy?”
“I don’t know.” She looked to Vanessa, who nodded and smiled.
“Do you miss your daddy?”
Opal shrugged and put her hands between her knees.
“Do you wish you could see your daddy?”
“Sometimes.”
Nicholas took notes on his clipboard each time she answered. “Do you ever feel scared around either of your parents?”
“Sometimes.”
“When do you feel scared?”
Opal looked over at Vanessa, but didn’t respond.
“It’s okay, honey,” Vanessa said. “Just tell the truth about Daddy.”
“Umm,” Opal said. “With my daddy.”
“You feel scared when you’re with your daddy?”
Opal looked over at Vanessa, then nodded.
“Why?”
Opal swallowed hard and took a long time to answer. This time, she looked at her feet instead of over at her mother. “He yells sometimes and throws things.”
“Has he or your mommy ever hurt you?”
She nodded.
“Who has hurt you?”
Opal looked over at Vanessa, waiting for the okay to go ahead and tell the truth.
“Just tell him what happened when you had to go to the hospital,” Vanessa said.
Then Opal said, “Daddy hurt me.”
“Daddy and not Mommy?”
She shook her head.
“Has Mommy ever hurt you?”
She kept her eyes down and shook her head again.
“Have you ever felt scared when you were with Mommy?”
Opal pulled her eyebrows together, then nodded.
“When do you feel scared when you’re with Mommy?”
“When bad things happen.”
Hunter squeezed Vanessa’s hand. What was Opal talking about? This wasn’t coming out right, whatever it was.
“What bad things happen?” Nicholas asked.
“Sometimes people get mad, and Mommy is there.”
“Which people?”
“Umm.” Opal looked afraid to answer, but said, “Daddy.”
“So, Mommy was there when Daddy got mad and that’s when you were scared?”
Opal nodded, looking a little relieved that he seemed to understand.
“Thank you, Opal.” Nicholas stood and came over to Hunter and Vanessa.
“Can I go play now?” Opal asked.
“Sure. Why don’t you go back into your room.” Vanessa smiled, then turned to Nicholas. “Thank you for coming. What happens now?”
Hunter felt uneasy. Vanessa might have thought it went well, but Nicholas’s body language was saying something else.
“Well, to be honest, we’ll need to investigate further,” Nicholas said curtly.
“So that you can get evidence that Jeremy was the one who hurt her? I can also give you evidence that he was hurting me. Would that help?” Vanessa asked.
“Afraid not, Mrs. Powers. We need to investigate because it seems to me that all this was staged.”
“Staged?” Vanessa’s face went white. “What do you mean?”
“I think you coached her to lie,” Nicholas said. “The way she kept looking at you, her unease. All signs that she was uncomfortable—”
“She was,” Vanessa snapped. “What do you expect her to feel when she’s been hurt, had to go on the run to hide from a horrible father then a strange man shows up asking about it? She’s afraid he’ll come back and hurt her again or me, and she doesn’t know who to trust except me. She was looking at me to make sure it was okay to tell the truth.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, Mrs. Powers. And the way she acted is how children act when a parent has told them to lie. We’ll investigate more to make sure, but this certainly doesn’t help your case.”
“Then why even talk Opal with her mother in the room?” Hunter asked. “You had to know that Opal would be afraid and nervous to talk to you. You have to know that any child looks to their parent for comfort when they’re uncomfortable.”
“Like I said”—Nicholas tucked his pen in his pocket and folded his clipboard under his arm—“I’ve been doing this a long time. I can tell when a child is being told to lie.”
Vanessa’s mouth hung open and tears sat low in her eyes. “But she’s not lying.”
“That’s why we’ll investigate more.” Nicholas walked to the door. “Have a nice day.”
He let himself out and Vanessa jumped when he shut the door. She looked over at Hunter, then burst into sobs as she fell into his arms.