Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 25728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
I sat there with him for I don't know how long before I returned him to his crib. I was sure Amber would be asleep by now, not that I'd been hiding out in hopes of that, at least that's what I told myself.
I returned to my room, she was in my bed rolled into a ball as if protecting herself from a blow. At first I thought maybe she was in pain, until I saw her face, and recognized the tracks of tears on her cheeks. Why had she cried herself to sleep? Was it because I had damn near molested her? Somehow I didn't think so; or could it be because I had rejected her?
My heart felt heavy and tired as I climbed into bed and drew her into my arms holding her as close as I possibly could.
"Colin." She sighed my name in her sleep.
The next day I woke up before her, I just lay there watching her. It was early still and the baby hadn't awakened as yet. He'd woken up for his three am feeding and I'd done my trick of putting him to her breast without waking her this time. I didn't know a body could be so tired as to sleep through that. It made me wonder how they got along for those first six weeks? It must've been hard.
I felt a pang of sadness, Amber was the same age as my little sister, whereas my sister was in college living happy and carefree from the many text I got, Amber had a baby. She also had no mother to guide her like Terry did; it hurt my heart to think of her all alone in that disgusting dump with my son. What if something had gone wrong? What if someone had...I cut my thoughts off; it didn't bear thinking. They were here now, safe. I had to get up and call Kurt, I needed something, this waiting was driving me crazy.
I gave her a soft kiss on her forehead, which made her sigh and cuddle closer. Why am I such a sap? Knowing everything I knew about her how could I want to lay here like this with her? I could feel my anger wanting to fight it's way to the surface, but my doubts were like a wall against it.
For just a moment I allowed myself to remember our time together, how much love there was, how I couldn't stand to have her out of my sight and vice versa. So why then had it been so easy for me to accept her guilt?
Because she'd run, why else would she run if she weren't guilty? And the evidence against her was overwhelming. I eased out of the bed taking care not to wake her. I took my shower quickly I didn't want Anthony to wake up while I was in there. I pulled on jeans and a tee shirt before heading out barefooted. I'd taken some time off and my brother was holding down the fort so I had no worries there. I would use this time to bond with my child.
Anthony was still out so I went to my office where the monitor I kept there would alert me when he awakened. It was still early but I called Kurt anyway.
He answered on the second ring. "Kurt it's me what do you have for me?" I had no doubt he would have something even if it wasn't much, at least it would be something.
"Yeah we went through cell phone records from the period she was here last, checked with the towers, lucky for us they're required by law to keep those things for a few years at least. You're not going to like what I found."
My gut tightened and I had to sit down, you expected this Colin pull yourself together.
"Give it to me straight."
"Nothing, we found absolutely nothing, all the places she went coincide with you or someone in your family, mostly Terry and you know where those towers are, all shopping areas.” He had a laugh in his voice. “Her phone stayed mostly quiet except for a once daily call to one Melissa Jones, other than that nothing."
"You sure about this Kurt? Be very sure, there's a lot riding on this."
"We were as thorough as can be, oh one more thing, I got in touch with the lady that owns the pawn shop. She wasn't there when we went last year and her new employee didn't know too much about the security cameras. Well apparently this old lady is a real stickler. She doesn't throw out her old tapes, she actually keeps them and have them burnt to disc in sequence. I'm seeing her later today, I'll let you know what we find."
"I want a copy of that disc, whatever it takes."