Mistaken Hope

by Sarah Elizabeth

  “You are right,” Paul admits, and this surprises me, though his eyes don’t show any remorse at all. “You are absolutely right. My daughter is the only one we should be focusing our energy on, not this weird set-up you have going on here.”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” No. Nope. No. I’m not gonna let this go. Not a chance. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” I grind out when he doesn’t respond. Taking another stride forward, I grab him by the collar of his shirt. “Say it again.” Growling the words out this time, I hear Diane gasp to my right and notice that Rach’s eyes have grown wide. When he still doesn’t answer me, I push him backward until the back of his body is pressed firmly against the wall.

  “Stop!” Rach pleads, grabbing a hold of my left arm while trying to loosen the hold I have on him. “Please? Brandon, please?”

  “Daddy?” The sound of her soft, sweet voice has me clenching my eyes closed, and makes my head automatically stoop down low. “What are you doing to Grandpa?” As she asks, I grudgingly loosen my grip on his shirt, taking a step away from him before daring to look over in her direction. When I do, I see that her lips are slightly parted and she’s looking a little upset, if not confused by what she just saw.

  “It’s okay, honey,” Diane says as she hurries over to her side. I know that what I just did was wrong. No. No, it wasn’t wrong. This guy right here deserved it for the malicious things he just said, but I should’ve had some more control over my actions, had more restraint, I know I should’ve. My daughter doesn’t need to see shit like this. Me and Paul, we’re never gonna get along no matter how hard I try, and believe me, I’ve tried. Most guys would’ve given up trying to gain his acceptance a long time ago, but me? Well, I’ve always wanted him to welcome me in with open arms. I’ve longed to be accepted as a part of his family. He’s Alexis’ father, her only family besides me and Holly, so I’ve tried countless times to gain his approval, for her sake more than my own. But, there’s only so much a guy can do, and I’m done with having to try and prove myself to him time and time again. “Let’s go and take a look at your drawing, shall we?” Diane asks, stealing Holly’s attention away from us while placing her arm around her.

  “I made it for my mommy,” I hear her say, and watch as she turns around to start walking back through to the kitchen.

  Raking both of my hands through my hair, I rest them behind my head and spin around to face the other way. Rach is right. We shouldn’t be taking our frustrations out on each other like this. After all, no matter our differences, we both want the same thing. We just want Alexis back home with us.

  Knock! Knock! Knock!

  I whip my head around when I hear somebody knocking on the front door, and then see Rach go to head out of the room, “No,” I tell her, touching her arm and offering her the best smile I can manage as I go to walk by her. “I’ll get it.”

  “No, I will. You stay in here,” she insists, nodding the one time over to Paul. He’s looking right at the both of us and I know what he’s thinking. He thinks that there’s something going on between me and Rach. Yeah, I know. He’s fucking delusional. Alright, I get it. I do. I’ve betrayed Alexis before in the past and he thinks that I’m gonna do it again. But, you wanna know something? Sleeping with Lisa was one of the biggest mistakes of my life, and it could’ve cost me everything. I could’ve lost the both of them. It doesn’t matter how many times I try and understand why I did what I did that night because, let’s be fair here, I don’t fucking remember the half of it, but Alexis forgave me. We’ve moved on, and she and I both know that she’s the only woman for me. I’ll never want anybody else but her. Ever.

  When he rakes his gaze away from mine, I wipe my sweaty palms on the back of my pants and let out a deep sigh, watching as Diane offers me a small, tight smile as she heads back inside the room.

  “You look exhausted,” she tells me, and she’s right. I am. I’m physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I never thought that I’d ever have to worry about anything like this, but I guess I should’ve anticipated it; expected for him to wanna come back and finish what he started. “Paul, would you like me to go and fetch you something to drink?” She turns her attention back to him, and he shakes his head as his way of reply, keeping his gaze focused down to the floor.

  When the door swings open, Rach steps inside, the detectives following in closely behind her, “They have something,” she says, her voice filling with her anxiety as she moves to the side, making way for the both of them to walk further inside the room. “I think that I’m going to go through and sit with Holly.” She makes brief eye contact with me, shrugging her shoulders while offering me an apologetic smile, and that’s when I see it. He hurt her more than she’ll ever admit. He’s made her feel like she’s not a part of this family, just like he’s made it pretty damn clear over the years that I’m not a part of his.

  I start heading toward her because I want her to know that, no matter what he or anybody else thinks, I need her here, but she shakes her head and backs out of the room, closing the door firmly behind her before I have a chance to reach her and tell her as much.

  “Well? What is it?” I ask impatiently while spinning around, glancing between the two of them. I wait for one of them to answer, but they both ignore me and look over toward Paul and Diane.

  “Mr. Taylor, perhaps we could speak with you in private?” Detective Land asks. “What we need to discuss with you is of a sensitive matter, and I think that it would be—”

  “I am her father! Does that not mean a damn thing anymore?” Paul growls through his gritted teeth as he stands, balling his hands down by his sides. The detectives both look to each other before Detective Nicolson holds an apologetic gaze back over on Paul. “Anything you can say to him you can damn well say to me!”

  “I am sorry, I was not aware, Mr. …?”

  “Mr. Harper, but I honestly do not think that we have the time to waste on formal introductions.”

  “Of course,” she nods at him before bringing her attention back on me. “We have received the DNA results back from the lab.”

  I shake my head and inhale a sharp breath, “And?” I ask, though I really don’t think that I wanna know the answer. I don’t wanna have to hear her or anybody else confirm that the blood they found here yesterday was Alexis’. I can’t deal with this. I can’t handle any of this. It hurts so bad that I’d rather die than have to live through the pain and agony of not knowing where she is, or what he’s done to her. I don’t wanna keep having the same thoughts whirling through my mind, questioning if I’ll ever see her again. I can’t take this anymore. I just … I don’t wanna have to live my life without her by my side.

  “It has come back a negative, Brandon. It was not Alexis’ blood.”

  “Oh, thank fuck,” I release the words through a whispered breath. “Oh, thank God.” I whisper again as Diane gently places her hand on my arm.

  “But …” I immediately snap my head up and feel my mouth turn downward just from hearing that one word alone. I don’t like the sound of this. I don’t like the sound of this at all. Her eyebrows furrow some more, and she hesitates. It’s almost as though she’s struggling to continue. “Brandon, it is not a match with Mr. Kelly’s, either.”

  Paul enters my vision, and I watch him as he glances around everybody in the room. He looks displeased and deep in thought over something, and after a couple of moments, he opens his mouth to speak, “If it was not my daughters and it was not Neil’s, then whose was it?” I was just gonna ask the same damn thing.

  Detective Nicolson clears her throat, “We believe that he may have an accomplice.”

  Somebody else? Somebody else is involved? Why? Who would voluntarily help that son of a bitch do something like this? She must be fucking terrified. “What? Well, who?” I ask, hoarsely. My airway feels restricted and I honestly feel as though I’m about to lose my goddamn mind.

  “We have detectives looking into that as we speak, Mr. Taylor,” Detective Land st
eps forward. “From the evidence we have managed to collect thus far, it does seem likely that he has somebody working alongside him. After all, he is a felon and certainly would not have been able to obtain a weapon without having help from another source. Background checks would have been carried out, which means that he would have needed to purchase the weapon using a different name, therefore he would have needed somebody else’s ID to complete the sale. Because of this, we also believe that the DNA we found here yesterday evening is that of his accomplice.”

  “I don’t understand …” I say, my voice pained. I shake my head and look to the ground, rubbing the tips of my index fingers over my temples. “Why would anybody help him? It doesn’t make any sense!” I throw my hands in the air and start to inhale long, deep breaths before I completely lose all of my control, because right now, I’m just about ready to punch somebody.

  “If Mr. Kelly has promised them something in return for their help, then you would be surprised what some people would be willing to do, Mr. Taylor. We currently do not hold any matches in our database, so whoever is assisting him has a clean record. Unfortunately, this makes the process of identifying who it belongs to much more difficult for us. Now, in cases similar to this one, most abductors only leave behind crucial pieces of evidence if they are in a hurry to leave an area. For example, if they are close to being found out. In most other cases, the evidence is destroyed or moved before the actual crime is committed.”

  “So, what are you saying here?” I raise my head, asking her this while staring directly into her eyes.

  She shakes her head and her face softens some, “It is obvious that he was already planning his strike, lying in wait, and it would only have been a matter of time before he struck. But, with all of the damning evidence that he has left behind, it does seem that Mr. Kelly had not planned to take Mrs. Taylor as soon as he did. It seems more plausible that he saw the window of opportunity to take her without giving it another moments thought or second guessing his actions. And this is why, believe it or not, this is extremely good news for us because it means that we have various leads to follow up on.”

  Alright, now, forgive me if I’m wrong here, but that doesn’t sound like the kinda thing he would do. I mean, he spent years covering his tracks, right? Yeah, you know just as well as I do that he did. He wouldn’t get careless; not again. Something else is going on here, but right now, I have absolutely no idea what that something is.

  “Why? Why did he have to take her?” I shake my head, whispering the words weakly, my head stooping low. “I mean, what? Is he after some kinda revenge or something? Is that what this is? He’s looking for revenge over something that he started himself?”

  “I can only make a comment based on the evidence we have been able to collect so far, but from the outside looking in, it would appear that Mr. Kelly has an extreme vendetta against you and your family.”

  Chapter Four

  My head is resting against the back of the couch, and I’ve been tapping my fingers uncontrollably on my lap for at least a half an hour now, while trying to make sense of all of this. Have I managed to? No. No, I haven’t. Alexis is out there somewhere¸ and if it wasn’t bad enough knowing that she’s out there with him, the cops are now telling us that there’s somebody else involved in all of this.

  Now, don’t take any of what I’m about to say the wrong way here, I mean, of course I’m fucking thankful that it wasn’t Alexis’ blood splattered over by the fire and across the wall, in fact, I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to describe to you just how fucking relieved I was and am to know this. But, finding out that it wasn’t Neil’s either has me on the fucking edge because I have absolutely no idea whose it was or how it got there.

  When the detective told us that it wasn’t Alexis’, I almost smiled at the thought that she’d managed to struggle against him, so much so that she’d succeeded in breaking his skin; hurting him. That she’d put up one hell of a fight as he stole her away from us. But, I was wrong … again.

  The detectives said it themselves. He took her earlier than he’d originally planned to take her, leaving evidence behind that links him to all of this. Surely that’s gotta count for something, right? There’s gotta be something else that he left behind, I don’t know, his plans, his intentions … there must be something among all of that stuff that’ll lead us to where he’s taken her.

  They should’ve found her by now. I mean, it’s been what? I lower my gaze and check my watch. It’s been eighteen fucking hours. Why haven’t they brought her back to us already?

  My eyes come to rest on one of the framed pictures that’s hanging on the opposite wall, and I slowly stand, making my way closer while staring at the two of us. Alexis’ hand is resting on my chest, and I’m nestling my face against her neck as she smiles directly at the camera. We were both so happy that day. Dammit! We’re always so happy when we’re together.

  This photograph was taken the day after I proposed to her. The day after she agreed to become my wife. That day was the third best day of my life. You see a pattern here? Yeah. Yeah, I know. All of my bests have been and always will be when I’m with Alexis. The sound she makes when she laughs, the tenderness of her lips, her beautiful smile. What am I gonna do if I don’t get to see, hear, or feel any of those things again? I’d die inside, I know that much. Without her, I’m nothing. Nothing at all.

  Diane has had her eyes firmly trained on Paul since the cops left, the worry heavy over her features, and not one of us have spoken a single word to each other. Not a damn one. I guess that’s probably because the three of us have been too busy caught up in our own thoughts, hopes, prayers, and fears.

  Just before the detectives headed out, they told us that they were currently looking into something in relation to the receipt they found among the rest of Neil’s belongings. They said that they were on their way over to the gun store on upper Westside to check things out, and both assured us that as soon as there are any new developments, we’ll be the first to know.

  Because they now believe that somebody else is involved in all of this, they informed us that they’re gonna be focusing a lot of their time and energy on trying to find out who’s been helping him out. According to them, a secondary person involved in a case like this causes a weak link. I guess I can see their logic. I mean, if they find out who’s been working alongside Neil then that person could potentially lead us straight to where he’s hiding out now.

  Hearing the sound of three heavy pounds on the front door helps to snap me away from my thoughts, and my heart starts to thrash inside my chest as I hurry out of the room to let them inside. Once I swing the door open, though, I pause because the two people standing on the other side of the threshold are not who I was expecting to see. I thought that it was gonna be the detectives standing on the porch, telling us that they’re getting closer to finding Alexis, but it isn’t. It’s Rye and Alyssa. Shit! They have no idea what’s going on. Nobody called them. I should’ve called them.

  “Hey, is she all set?” Alyssa beams a wide smile at me, revealing her whiter than white teeth as she pushes by me. “I know that we are a little earlier than we had previously planned, but we thought that we could treat them both to some lunch on our way over there.” She adds while unfastening the knot in her purple scarf. Rye casually shrugs his shoulders, rolling his eyes at Alyssa’s usual excitement over, well, pretty much anything. “Wait a minute. Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the studio?”

  “Um … I …” My brow knits firmly together. “What?”

  “Lunch and the theatre,” Alyssa begins to explain, shaking her head at me as though she thinks that I’ve completely lost my mind. “We’ve come to grab Alex and Holly so we can spoil her for her birthday.” She continues, her mouth falling wide open. “You don’t remember? Brandon! It’s Alexis’ birthday this weekend, how could you forget something like this?”

  “No, I …” Yeah, she’s right. I did forget, though I’d remembered righ
t up until last night. I’ve already got her a gift, I bought it weeks ago. When I was on my way back home from work one night, something inside of one of the store windows caught my eye. I knew that I had to get it for her, and it’s now that I remember why they’re here. They’re supposed to be taking her out for the day because she told them that she wanted to spend the whole of her birthday weekend with just me and Holly. Fuck, I really hope they’re gonna find her before then. They have two days. Two days to bring her back home to us.

  “You’ve gone kinda pale,” Rye pats my arm to gain my attention, and I see a questioning look entering his eyes. “Is everything alright, bro?”

  Resting my hand on the doorframe, I glance between the both of them while shaking my head.

  “No. No, it isn’t.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Alyssa speaks, her voice unsteady. “I’m … Oh my God!” She brings her hands up and clasps them over her mouth, fear washing over her entire face as what I just told the both of them starts to sink in.

  I’ve just had the painful task of filling them in on what’s been going on for the past eighteen or so hours. To say that they’re in complete shock right now would be an understatement. I mean, Alyssa’s never been rendered speechless in all of the time that I’ve known her.

  Rye hasn’t exactly said a lot, though I can tell by the expression that’s currently over his face that he’s just as worried and concerned as everybody else is. I mean, what is there that anybody can possibly say under these kinda circumstances, anyways? What words are gonna be able to make this situation any easier to deal with? ‘Oh, I’m sure she’ll be home soon’ or ‘she’ll be fine.’ No. Nobody has the right to say those things because there are no guarantees in life. Hell! I know this more than anybody. None of us have any idea of what lies ahead from here on out. All of mine and Alexis’ future plans, hopes, and dreams, well, it’s likely that’s all they’re ever gonna be now, isn’t it? Dreams. Fantasies that may never get the chance to become a reality.