The Edge of Destiny

by Emma Easter

  Cecilia bowed. “I’ll go now,” she said and walked away.

  Rachel went to the common room and smiled when she saw women lounging and talking. The house was messier than when Margaret had run it, but the women here seemed happier. The awful renewal classes had stopped, and they had regular Bible studies instead. Women took turns reading the Bible and sharing what they had learned with everyone.

  She felt someone come behind her and turned. Keith put his arm around her and whispered in her ear, “You still think you’ve not done much for this place or the community? Look at how much change has happened here and how much happier all the women are. You keep worrying about the people who have left the community, but we should focus on those who are still here. The people who stayed.”

  Rachel smiled and turned into his arms. She hugged him tightly. “You always know what to say to make me feel better.” She kissed him. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes. As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  They left the house together and made their way through the almost deserted town. She couldn’t help feeling sad again. The bustling town she’d grown up in was now empty because of her. Yes, most of the women in the House of Refuge seemed happier, but many who had left hadn’t had a choice. They left with their so-called husbands and with parents who didn’t care if they wanted to leave or not.

  All the way to Mike’s house, Rachel stared at the abandoned homes, feeling overwhelmed and a little confused. Most of them now belonged to her, but she didn’t know what to do with them. Every time she’d asked the Lord for guidance, all she’d heard in her heart was to wait for the right time. But what did that mean? When was the right time?

  They finally began to approach Mike’s house — the large five-bedroom home she’d lived in for four years before she’d finally left Mike. He had just repainted it, and it looked like a brand-new home. Hopefully that meant he was still planning to stay in Fallow Creek for a long time to come so she could continue to see her daughter, even if for now it wasn’t as regularly as she wanted and in secret. But then again, knowing Mike, it might mean nothing, or even be a deliberate move to make everyone believe he was staying, especially her, so no one would expect it when he suddenly disappeared with Emily.

  Fear flooded her heart again, and she tried to push it away. But it remained. As though Keith sensed her dread, he took her hand and squeezed it, smiling his encouragement. Today, there were more guards than the last time they were here, which didn’t surprise her much. One of them, a beefy guard who she guessed was their leader, walked up to her and Keith, a scowl on his face.

  “Yes, can I help you?” he asked, looking at them as though he’d never seen them before, even though they’d seen him the last two times they were here.

  “We’re here to see Olivia, Mike’s wife,” Rachel said. “She asked us to come.”

  The guard shook his head. “We only take orders from the man of the house, and Mr. Cadwell didn’t tell us you were coming.”

  Keith said, “Why don’t you send one of your men to go ask him?”

  Rachel pressed her lips tightly together. It was a bold suggestion, seeing as it wasn’t Mike who had invited them. She’d thought that Mike would be out of town this evening and that was why Olivia had asked them to come. Apparently, he was still around. She felt a slight foreboding. That might mean Keith’s suspicions were right, and they were about to walk into a trap. But then, would the guards stop them from going into the house if that were the case? If Mike meant to harm them, surely he would instruct his guards to let them through immediately? Or this might just be a deflection, so they would not suspect anything was amiss.

  The guard did not move. Rachel sighed loudly. The front door opened, and Olivia stepped out. When she waved her hand to them, Rachel shook her head and pointed at the guard who had refused to let them get any closer to the house. Olivia approached, and Rachel watched the expression on her face closely, trying to decipher what she was thinking; if she had set them up or not. She couldn’t read anything from the woman’s face. She expected Olivia to pull her aside and tell her the secret location where she would bring Emily so Rachel could see her. Instead, Olivia said loudly, “Come into the house, Rachel. And you too, Keith.”

  The beefy guard’s scowl deepened. He looked pointedly at Olivia and said, “Mr. Cadwell did not tell us to let anyone into the house. In fact, he gave us specific instructions never to let these two near the property.”

  Olivia narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. “‘These two,’ as you call them, own most of Fallow Creek, and Mike asked me to call them here for a meeting about the town.”

  The guard frowned suspiciously just as Rachel did the same. He said, “Still, we have instructions to…”

  “Are you saying I’m lying?” Olivia glared at the guard. “Do you want to come into the house and ask Mike if he really sent me to bring them in?”

  The guard shook his head. “Okay.” He eyed Rachel and Keith and glanced at Olivia before looking at them again. “You can go in.”

  Rachel followed Olivia, Keith beside her. She still didn’t know what to think. She’d not been allowed into the house since she’d come back to Fallow Creek, and now Olivia was asking her and Keith in. If Mike found out that they had come into his house through Olivia’s instructions, they would all be in trouble.

  Olivia herself would be in the most trouble if that happened. Rachel was beginning to lean more toward believing that all this, including the guard’s refusal to let them in, was a ploy. But she hoped with all her heart that it wasn’t. She yearned to see her daughter now much more than she feared for her own safety.

  They entered the house, and Rachel looked around the big living room. The inside of the house had not been repainted like the outside. Everything, at least here in the living room, still looked the same as when she’d left.

  She sat beside Keith on the sofa, expecting Mike to step out at any moment with his annoying smirk and tell them they’d walked into his trap more easily than he’d thought. But Mike didn’t come, and neither did Olivia go to bring Emily for her. Instead, she sat on the couch facing them and began to talk about how much Fallow Creek had changed. She talked non-stop, and Rachel knew her enough to see she was nervous about something.

  Something was wrong. There was something very strange about all this. She was pretty sure now that she and Keith had walked into a trap… but there was something else as well. She wanted to tell Keith what she thought, but from the look on his face, he was already thinking the same thing. Any moment now, he would tell her they had to leave, but she didn’t want to in spite of her suspicions. If there was any shred of hope that she could see Emily today, she would take it. Besides, they had their plan and had already sent someone to the police station in Prospect. If Mike made any move to harm them, they would let him know about that.

  When she’d finally had enough of Olivia’s prattle, she said, “Where’s Emily, Olivia? I want to see her.”

  Olivia wrung her hands, a worried look on her face. She looked back as though she were expecting someone, and Rachel blinked.

  She stood up. “Where is my daughter, Olivia? Where is she?”

  Keith held her hand. “Maybe we should go.”

  “I’m not going without seeing my daughter.”

  Olivia looked back again, and Rachel screamed at her. “I know you’re planning to hurt us. But it won’t work because…” Her mouth fell open as Mike walked, or rather, stumbled into the room with a man holding him firmly from behind. His hands were bound behind him, his mouth gagged. His eyes bulged when he saw Rachel and Keith and he began to struggle, but the man held him tightly.

  Rachel blinked as she recognized the man. His beard was even bushier than the last time she’d seen him. It was Daniel, who had been one of the leaders of the notorious Security Squad guards and Taylor’s childhood friend. This time, he was dressed not in the usual squad fatigues, but in jeans and a black T-shirt. She’d thought all the Squad members had
left Fallow Creek, but apparently not. She turned to look at Mike, who was still staring at her with rage, and shook her head in confusion.

  Keith said, “What on earth is happening here?”

  Olivia turned to Rachel and Keith and said, “There are people I want you to meet. It might be strange and…”

  Rachel cut in as she looked at Mike. “What could be stranger than this?”

  Olivia turned around, facing the entrance to the kitchen. “Davina! Please bring them out.”

  About eight women walked into the living room, their expressions fearful. Rachel recognized most of them. All of them except for Davina were Dennis Hamilton’s wives.

  Olivia faced Rachel. “You know them?”

  Rachel nodded, perplexed.

  “When you took over the town and Dennis disappeared, they all went into hiding. Actually, they were all staying in the abandoned house where you and Keith lived when you came back to Fallow Creek. I happened to find out when I saw one of them coming out from there and then discovered they all lived there, including their children. It was not a pretty sight.”

  She studied Rachel’s face. “They told me they were living there because they were afraid you would drive them out of Fallow Creek because of what Dennis did to you and your family, or even harm them in some way out of revenge. I told them you were definitely not like that, and I promised to give them an audience with you. Their kids are upstairs with mine. Please tell them that you mean them no harm.”

  One of the women, whom Rachel knew as Dennis’s first wife, said to her, “Please. We know our husband was cruel, and we don’t deserve anything from you. But we and our children don’t have anywhere to go. This town is our home and has been for…”

  “Stop!” Rachel cut in. The women looked anguished. “I certainly do not hold anything against any of you. How could you think I would? I don’t even hold a grudge against Dennis. I chose to forgive him months ago. But you and your kids did absolutely nothing wrong. I would never think of sending you out of town. You all can go back to your home. It is yours and your children’s.”

  The women’s faces lit up. “Thank you!” they said in unison.

  Rachel went and hugged each of them. Mike grunted loudly, but everyone ignored him.

  One of the women, the one who looked like the youngest, said to Rachel, “I don’t want to go back to the house.” She looked down and muttered, “I want to come to the Restoration House.”

  Another one, a girl with big, curly hair, nodded. “I do, too. I don’t want to go back to Dennis’s house since he’s not alive anymore.”

  Rachel grinned. “You’re both welcome to stay in the House of Refuge.”

  The curly-haired woman said, “Helen has no kids, but I have two children. Will there be space for them as well?”

  Rachel looked at Keith, and he smiled cautiously at her.

  Olivia said, “You’ve been telling me to leave Mike for so long and now I am ready to. I want to come and stay at the House too, but you know I have two active boys. Will I be able to live there with them?”

  Mike grunted even louder, but they all still ignored him.

  Rachel bit her lip as she thought about what to do. The House of Refuge only had female residents. Children didn’t typically stay there, and it was not ideal for kids. An idea suddenly came to her, and she said to Keith, “You know I’ve been asking the Lord what to do with all those abandoned houses. I think I now know what he wants us to do with them.”

  Keith smiled at the curly-haired girl and looked at Rachel. “She and Olivia can stay in two of those houses with their kids.”

  Rachel nodded. “Yes. And other women who come to Fallow Creek with their children can stay in the houses as well. They will be extensions of the House of Refuge… but for families.”

  The women thanked her again, but she waved off their thanks. She said to Olivia, “Now, Mike. I know why and how you got him tied up…” She looked at Daniel, “but what do you plan to do with him? You know how he is. He’ll not take this lying down.”

  Olivia shrugged.

  Rachel stared at her. “Surely, you don’t plan to leave him here tied up like this? He won’t survive if you do.”

  Olivia looked horrified at Rachel’s words. “Of course I won’t leave him here! I still love him in spite of everything. And he is the father of my children.” Her voice was pleading. “Maybe you can take him to the Restoration House. I will definitely not be able to manage him on my own, and I don’t want to stay with him anymore. At the House, there are many people there who can hold him down so he doesn’t escape.”

  “I can’t take Mike to the House of Refuge!” Rachel shook her head vehemently. “Maybe we should hand him over to the police.”

  Mike grumbled, and Keith said, “On what charges, Rachel? Olivia’s right. We can take Mike to the House. I’ll watch him, and Daniel can come and stay there as well. We’ll make sure he doesn’t try to escape.”

  “Will you lock him up in the House?” Olivia looked worried.

  “We have no choice,” Keith said. “We won’t bind him, but he will be confined to a room in the House until we know what to do with him.”

  Rachel turned to look at Daniel again. “I thought you had left Fallow Creek.”

  “I came back,” he said and looked over at Davina before turning away.

  “So, Davina. I thought you liked being married to Mike. Why did you decide to help Olivia with her plans, and are you still staying with Mike after all this?”

  Davina sighed. “Two months ago, my sister Gertrude told me everything you taught about the gospel and God’s real desire for marriages in the Restoration House. I gradually began to see that Mike wasn’t really my true husband and that I was living out of God’s will. I wanted to do the right thing but didn’t know how. I knew I had to apologize to Olivia and tell her how I was feeling because she was the first wife, the one who I had usurped and treated badly for a long time because of my ignorance. I told her I wanted to leave Mike, and she confessed that she wanted to as well. When she saw Dennis’s wives in that abandoned house, we knew we had to do something.”

  She looked over at Daniel and smiled sweetly. “Daniel had come back to Fallow Creek because…” She glanced at Mike and then looked at Rachel. “I told him about our plan and predicament, and he promised to help. He got into the house under the guise of wanting to offer his services to Mike. He helped us overpower Mike and bind him.”

  Rachel nodded, fully understanding everything.

  “So the main question no one is asking…” Keith looked at Olivia, “…is how we are all — including the children — going to leave this house when there are half a dozen armed guards outside.”

  Olivia leaned forward. “I’ve been married to Mike for a long time. I know every inch of this house. There’s a trap door in the cellar. No one knows about it except for Mike and me. It leads to a very long passageway that will take you a distance away from the house and property. There is an SUV parked near the end of the passageway. A getaway car. That was how the children and I got out when we fled from Fallow Creek a year ago on Mike’s instructions.” She smiled at Rachel. “Because of you.”

  Rachel listened in shock. She’d had no inkling about any of this when she was with Mike and lived here.

  Mike began to struggle wildly, and Daniel held him down.

  Olivia glanced at Mike and said, “Daniel will drive us in batches to the House of Refuge, starting with the children.”

  Rachel looked up the staircase. “Talking about the kids, where’s Emily?”

  Olivia nodded at Davina and Helen, and they raced upstairs.

  Olivia said, “Daniel, please take Mike to that inner room, because of the kids. So they don’t see him like this.”

  Daniel nodded and pulled Mike up. Mike struggled again, but Daniel held him firmly and pushed him out of the living room.

  A minute later, Davina descended the stairs with Emily in her arms. Olivia’s boys followed her, and Helen herde
d about a dozen kids down the stairs.

  Rachel’s heart leapt with joy. She opened her arms wide and hugged Emily to herself when Davina deposited her daughter in her arms. “Oh, my darling.” She kissed Emily’s cheeks. “You look so big.”

  Emily giggled and said, “Mama,” and Rachel felt like her heart was going to burst with joy and love for her daughter. “I didn’t know she was talking now.”

  “Oh…” Olivia chuckled. “She talks non-stop now. What she says hardly makes any sense to anyone around, but that doesn’t stop her from going on and on.”

  Rachel laughed with happiness. When Keith came over to look at Emily, she turned and kissed him. Tears fell down her cheeks. “She knows I am her mother, Keith. In spite of what Mike did to try to separate us from each other, my Emily knows she is mine.”

  Keith kissed both her cheeks and wiped her tears away with his thumb. He looked down at Emily and kissed her little nose. He tickled her, and she wailed with laughter. “Hey munchkin, how are you?”

  Emily smiled widely at him and then launched into a full tale in her baby talk. Everyone laughed, including the children.

  Rachel’s heart felt full, and she silently gave God thanks for this miracle. Now she didn’t have to be separated from her daughter ever again. There was still the issue of the mass exodus and trying to help some of the girls in the House of Refuge figure out where their loved ones had moved to, but she would take everything one step at a time. She would trust that God, who had reunited her with her daughter permanently now, would do the same for those girls. No matter how long it took.

  The children soon began to run around the living room while their mothers tried to quiet them down. Olivia said, “I guess it’s time for everyone to go.” Her eyes traveled round the living room. “I’ll miss this house, but not the things I had to endure here.” She said to Davina, “Go and get Daniel from the guest room. Tell him it’s time to go. He’ll take the kids and some of the women here to the Restoration House, which we are now calling the House of Refuge. Keith, Rachel and I will watch Mike and will leave last.”