by KIKI MALONE
Carter seems a bit crushed by my news. Would he have been happy to have more children? I mean, now is not the time to even think about it with our three currently missing but would he have wanted more children in the future. Again, this is something we never discussed. I guess neither one of us thought this thing between us would last longer than it would take for him to get permanent custody of the girls.
“Mrs. Montgomery, I’m afraid to tell you ablations only last a couple of years and we all know birth control is not one hundred percent effective. When was the last time you had one?”
“About three years ago. I haven’t had a period since, so I didn’t think it was necessary to have another one yet.”
“Well, why don’t we get an ultrasound machine in here and take a look. If we don’t see anything on an external exam, we’ll run bloodwork. If the blood is positive, we’ll do an internal exam. I don’t want to be invasive if we don’t have to be.”
I agree with the doctor and she leaves the room so I can get changed.
Carter comes to me immediately and wraps me in his arms. Not the reaction I was expecting from him.
“It’s okay,” he whispers. “We can always adopt if you want more children.”
Wow, this man amazes me more every day. Instead of being upset and thinking I can’t give him children, he’s trying to make me feel better.
I quickly undress and put on the ugly hospital robe I was given. I hate these things. I swear, the person who invented them had to be blind when they came up with the design and pattern. No one in their right mind would ever voluntarily put something like this on. What ever happened to privacy? All my bits are hanging out.
After I dress, I sit back up on the bed. Carter sits on the bed with me instead of sitting in the chair. His look is one I can’t decipher at the moment. His eyes are a bit watery and it looks like he’s trying to keep from crying.
“Are you ready, Mrs. Montgomery?” the doctor asks from outside the room. Yes, room. We were put in a private room instead of a curtained area. Another thing I guess money can buy.
“Yes, please come in,” I answer.
Carter gets off the bed and stands next to me holding my hand. He doesn’t let go as the doctor walks in pushing an ultrasound machine. I thought we’d have a little more time while we waited for a tech, but it looks like this doctor just wants to get this done. I like that. I hate waiting.
“Okay, Mrs. Montgomery, let’s check you out,” she says as she sits on the stool by the edge of the bed.
She lifts my robe and then puts some gel on the wand and places it on my belly. It’s a bit cold at first but then I don’t notice a thing as I hear a thump thump thump sound.
“Oh. My. God,” I cry. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I know what that is on the screen. How? I don’t know how to react.
“Elizabeth,” Carter whispers. I look up at the man and see tears in his eyes once again. “I can’t believe I’m going to be a father again.”
He has an awe to his voice. This man truly loves his children and by the sound of his voice, he already loves this one too.
“Well, congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery,” the doctor says. “Looks like we have a baby in here. And by the looks of things in this preliminary view, it doesn’t look like we have anything to worry about. The uterus looks healthy as does the placenta and the sac. It looks like a miracle if you ask me. From the measurements I’ve done so far, it looks like you’re about ten weeks along. Although there are still a few more weeks left in your first trimester, I would go out on a limb and say you’re in the safe zone. Most miscarriages happen within the first twelve weeks, and with the diagnosis you received from your previous doctor, I think you would’ve spontaneously aborted the fetus by now.”
The doctor herself looks like she’s happy. She moves the wand around on my belly a bit more, but I think I’m lost in everything surrounding me. All I can do is look at the screen and see that while my life may be a nightmare at the moment, one of my greatest dreams is about to come true.
“Congratulations you two and I hope they find the rest of your children quickly. We were watching the news at the nurse’s station and I’m so sorry this is happening at what should be a happy time for you. Only a monster would rip their children out of their parents’ lives. I’m sorry, it may be unprofessional, but I can’t stand women who use their children against their fathers.”
With those words, the doctor leaves the room. Carter and I sit there, just staring at the screen where the doctor left the picture of our baby up for us to see.
We need to find our children. They need to be here with us and enjoy their little brother or sister. I vow, right then, that I will give it everything I have to find out how and why the judge granted them visitation so quickly and allowed this all to happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CARTER
HOLDING ONTO HOPE
SIX MONTHS LATER
THE WHIRLWIND of emotions Elizabeth and I have felt in these last months are indescribable. We’ve been happy, we’ve been sad, but the one thing we haven’t done is give up hope. It’s been so hard on the both of us, trying to celebrate our expanding family when there are three of us still missing.
The police have all but given up hope on finding our girls. The FBI has been involved but I don’t think they have our case as an active case right now. I think they’ve given up hope on ever finding our girls, as well.
It’s been six long months of hoping and praying. Following lead after lead, following tips given by strangers. It’s all come back to being bad information and us not finding our children.
I’ve put out rewards for information leading to their whereabouts. We’ve gone on local and national news begging and pleading for just someone to know or have seen our children and those douchebags who took them from us.
After we left the hospital the day our girls went missing, Elizabeth made it her mission to find out how they were even able to get a hold of them in the first place. I spoke with Robert about this on many occasions and Mikael looked into it all, as well. No one understood how they were able to get any type of custody of my children without child services, psychologists and home studies done.
It turned out, the judge had a gambling problem. Andrew had his own investigation done in order to get what he wanted. He blackmailed the judge into making this all go in his and Maggie’s favor. He was making payments to the judge to help him get out of debt, the last payment which the judge could’ve finally happily retired on was set for the day we were due in court for the revealing of all the paternity tests.
The tests. Those, too, were rigged. The lab the court was using was the one Maggie’s friend Felicia worked at. The results of the DNA tests were rigged to show Andrew as the father. Since Maggie left without Felicia, and Felicia was up the proverbial shit’s creek for her hand in all this, she sung like a canary when questioned by the FBI. Guess those girls were really only loyal to the money and not to each other. Felicia will spend some time behind bars, but she did get a lighter sentence for cooperating with the police.
The judge has been behind bars since this all went down. Though Felicia’s trial was quick, the judge isn’t getting off as easy. You can’t be a sitting judge and compromise yourself in so many ways. We’ve been led to believe that the judge will never see a day of freedom again for the rest of his natural life. I’m not upset about that, to say the least. Someone has to pay, and I don’t think the time any of these assholes spend behind bars will be long enough.
There are many questions, however, with Oliver’s paternity. That poor kid, I do feel sorry for him. He’s going to hurt as much as my girls are probably hurting right now. He’ll likely never see the only parents he’s ever known, and that, there, my friends, is the kicker.
Oliver’s paternity test came back as me being his biological father, which we all know is damn near impossible. Maggie and I had never been intimate since she found out she was pregnant with the girls. Hel
l, I hadn’t even seen her since the girls were just a few months old. We still don’t have the answer to that one.
Elizabeth and I talked in depth about what will happen with Oliver. We don’t want him to spend his life in the system, so we are going to adopt him. I’m hoping that he’ll be able to adjust to us being his new family. I would hope that in all these months of him being with his sisters, at least he’ll feel comfortable enough with them and it won’t be a shock to him.
We’ve already hired psychologists for the children, for when they finally make it back home to us. I have no doubt that I will get my children back, I just hope it’s before our new baby is born.
Elizabeth has been having a difficult time as of late. Angela has been here helping almost every day while Mikael and I have been trying to follow every lead that comes our way. She’s been a Godsend and I’m hoping that she and Mikael can one day see what Elizabeth and I have been witnessing since the beginning. They both deserve happiness after all they’ve been through in life, and we think they’ll find that happiness in each other.
Mikael has been blaming himself for so long, but really, it’s not his fault. Who knew that Andrew and Maggie could be this evil and devious? I never, in a million years, would have even thought Maggie would go to these extremes. Kidnapping our children just to get revenge was never warranted. I didn’t do anything to that woman, ever. I gave her the world and in turn, she gave me her ass to kiss.
Sitting here at my desk in the house, I click through the new list of suspected places Maggie and Andrew may be with the children. Elizabeth is finally asleep after she and Angie spent the entire day painting the nursery.
I watched them for a while.
At first, they were laughing, joking about the colors and saying that if the doctors were wrong, they’d have to repaint the room. I didn’t see anything wrong with a girl living in a blue room, but they thought differently.
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Elizabeth fell to the floor and started sobbing.
“How can I be happy, Angie?” she asked her best friend. “My girls are missing out on so much. Carter is miserable but tries to hide it, but he’s so loving and happy for our son at the same time. My heart is a wreck. I don’t know how to do this. What if they are being mistreated? Or worse.”
I watched her sob in Angie’s arms and wanted to tell her it would be okay, but I can’t. I can’t lie to my wife.
She’s absolutely right.
I have been happy, and sad, and elated and miserable. I have done my best not to show her this, but apparently, I’ve been doing a shit job at it.
“I just want my girls’ home,” she said as she choked back a sob. “None of this feels right without them, Ange. I don’t know how to be happy when I feel so sad. And that poor boy, he’s going to be so lost. How will I be able to comfort him and be the mother he needs with a newborn? Will the girls hate us? Have they brainwashed them?”
I wanted them home too, my beautiful wife. It took everything in me not to go into the room and snatch my wife up in my arms and tell her that it will all be okay. She’s just conveyed every feeling I have in a few sentences.
“Oh, Elizabeth,” I heard Angie choking back a sob herself. “Let’s celebrate the love you found and the life you’ve created. It will all work out in the end, you’ll see. God is not cruel. Look how things worked out for me. I have the utmost faith it will all work out for you, too. That man of yours will never let those girls go. He will make sure Oliver feels just as much love as he gives the girls. He will bring them home and you will be a happy family again.”
Instead of interrupting their moment, I walked away. I had to keep that promise Angela just made to Elizabeth. I had to fix my family. I had to find my children and bring them home. All four of them.
Coming out of my memory, I feel the wetness on my cheeks. I wipe it away quickly. I don’t want Elizabeth to see me this way. She’s been through enough already.
Her concern about Oliver makes me think. That poor little boy doesn’t even know I’m his dad. Hell, I didn’t even know I was his father. How that bitch pulled that off is something I will make her answer for. How dare she keep one of my children away from me! She knows how much family means to me.
I pick up my cell and dial Mikael. This is our normal routine. We call each other every few hours, getting updates. Right now, he’s following a lead in Colorado. I don’t want to sound negative, but I have a feeling that this is another dead end.
“Nothing,” Mikael says as he answers the phone. No greeting, no pretenses. It’s not needed between us.
“Fuck!” I can’t believe this. Why are people making false claims? Don’t they understand how much it takes out of us every time we hit a dead end? Don’t they know I won’t pay the ransom unless the tip they call in is a viable one?
“Yeah,” Mikael sighs. “I get it dude. I don’t know how much more I can take of this bullshit.”
This is affecting Mikael almost as much as it affects us. I can hear the weariness in his voice.
“Elizabeth broke down again today,” I tell him. “I don’t know how much more she can take. This can’t be good for her or the baby. She doesn’t need this stress.”
“I get it brother. I wish I could have found them by now. I don’t know what else to do.”
He’s done so much more than I would’ve ever expected of him, but I don’t voice that to him. I tried once, and I swear the man wanted to choke me out for it.
“Hold on,” Mikael suddenly says. There’s an inflection in his voice that wasn’t there before. One I haven’t heard in a long fucking time
“What is it?” I question, immediately on alert.
“Get here, now,” Mikael says. “I found them. Get here, get on a fucking plane! Come get your family! Before they ghost us again.”
“Elizabeth,” I scream. I don’t even care about anything else right now.
I drop the phone and go running to find her. She needs this good news now more than ever.
“Elizabeth,” I call again when I don’t find her in our bed.
“In here.” I hear her reply from the nursery.
When I walk in, she’s sitting on the floor again. This time, she’s holding her stomach and a picture of our girls. Tears are running down her face, and hopefully, now they’ll be happy tears and not sad ones.
“Mikael thinks he found them,” I whisper. I can’t get my emotions under control and by the look on Elizabeth’s face, she can’t either.
“Are you sure?” she whispers back. She’s scared to be happy. I’m scared too. There have been too many leads that didn’t pan out but if Mikael said he actually found them, I have to believe him. He wouldn’t ever say something if it weren’t fact.
“Yes,” I reply. “I was on the phone with Mikael when suddenly he told me to get there. I have to go to Colorado. I know you can’t travel. But, I have to go get them.”
“Go,” she says. Doesn’t even have to think about it. “Bring our children home. Get them here before he arrives.” She finishes that sentence while cradling her stomach where our unborn son rests.
It’s so difficult for me to leave her. She’s been having Braxton Hicks’ contractions a lot lately and the doctor told her she needs to take it easy. Things haven’t been easy at all for us, so I know with me having to go meet Mikael and retrieve our girls is hard for Elizabeth. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing by leaving her here, but I’m sure if she wasn’t feeling well, she’d tell me.
It’s important that I’m the one to bring our family home but if it was going to harm Elizabeth or the baby, I’d trust Mikael to bring them.
She told me to go get them and I’m not going to let her down. I’m going to bring our children home for her.
“I love you, Elizabeth. Our family is finally going to be whole again.”
“I love you, too, Carter. Now get the hell out of here and go get my kids. Make sure you bring home our new addition while I take care of this one.”
I run out of the room and grab my duffle bag. It’s always packed. There’s nothing for me to do but call my pilot and head to the airstrip. I grab the court order we obtained giving me full custody of Oliver, along with my girls. I’ve finally put my money to use and have everything I need so that I won’t have to wait for another court to let me have them when it comes to rescuing my children and bringing all of them home once and for all. Oliver will know love just as the rest of my children do.
Three hours later, we touch down in Colorado. Mikael is on the runway waiting for me.
“They’re on the move,” he tells me. “Let’s go, we’re running out of time before they disappear again.”
I quickly get into the car and we’re off.
“Did you see them? Did they look healthy?” I ask. I have a ton of questions, but these are the most important ones. I don’t need the answers to the others immediately, but I need these.
“Yes, I saw them on a closed-circuit camera. I couldn’t tell you anything, only that it’s definitely them. The picture was grainy as shit, but I know my girls and they were definitely my girls. The little boy was with them, too. Did you bring the court orders? We’ll need them for the local police once we get there. They won’t just hand the kids over to us. They’ll take them to the hospital for evaluation, and then you’ll be able to see them. I need you to try and be a little patient. I know it’s hard, but I don’t need you causing a ruckus and fucking this up more than it is. Can you do that? Or should I take you to the hotel until the authorities move in and take them?”
