Chapter 10

Twos days had passed since Jo and Alex talked to Detective Morgan at their house. The couple hadn't been able to have a normal conversation without ending up screaming at each other, the more they tried to get to each other the more they crashed apart, everything seemed to be falling apart slowly between them. The detective had called them in the afternoon informing them to go to the police station to watch the security tapes they had gotten from the hospital. They went there having a silent contest in the car and came back the same way.

"How did it go?" Jane asked Jo kneeled on the floor while packing her luggage to go back to California where she lived "Your face is telling me it didn't go that well, did it?"

"No" Jo said shaking her head and walking inside of the bedroom to sit on the bed "It was a disaster, but I think I can take it, comparing it to everything else… Alex believes me less each passing minute. My daughter's fourth birthday is two freaking days and we don't know where she is… Every single person says 'The mother did it, can you believe it?' I actually heard that in there."

"I'm sorry. I can postpone the meeting and stay longer if you need me to." Jane said putting her hand on Jo's right knee and squeezing it.

"No, no, it's okay. Thank you. You need any help with that?" Jo asked pointing to the clothes that were on the floor.

"No, I'm almost done. So what did they say there?"

"Well, you know Camilla was taken around 4:13 pm." Jo said and Jane nodded at her "Well…I was 'caught on camera' leaving the hospital at 4:03 and only returned to the hospital like forty minutes later or so, and they really do think that I took my child out of the daycare and brought her here and someone finished the rest of the 'job'."

"Jo I know that you are beyond pissed her helpless and that you are trying to disguise that but you can't keep acting like the way you are right know." Jane scolded her due the fact that Jo was making air quotes and talking weirdly "I do get you because I do the same when I'm upset, but other people don't, and if you keep doing this it will get harder and harder for you to be believable."

"Are you saying that you don't believe me either?" Jo asked pretending to be shocked with what her sister had told her

"See? You are doing it again! It is okay if you break down a little, you don't have to put this fake wall in front of you. Your daughter is missing for Christ sake! Be sad, cry a little, yell, whatever but just stop pretending that everything is okay." Jane said raising her voice at each new word that was coming out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry. This is just too much. Are you done?" she asked pointing to her sister's luggage that appeared packed.

"Yes, let's go." Jane answered getting up and they both walked downstairs. Jane said her goodbye to Alex and left the house telling Jo that she'd be waiting for her outside, jo gave her the keys so that Jane could get inside of the car.

"Alex?" she said standing in front of him while he was watching the news.

"Jo..." he said pushing her a little aside so that he could keep an eye on what was going on the TV

"Look at me." She demanded "You don't actually believe it do you?"

"Believe what?" he said giving up of trying to push her away and looking at her in her eyes.

"That I would actually do what they say I did, do you?"

"No Jo. I don't" he answered her but not with a voice that convinced her.

"Oh, you don't? Goodbye Alex!" she said and stormed out of the living room and walked towards the front door to their house with anger filling every single cell of her body.

"You can go… I won't bother you by calling you or something if you take more than seven hours to come back." He yelled from the living room and Jo take her hand from the doorknob.

"Oh I'll make it easier for you. I won't even come back. I'll be staying at the other house." She said and got out slamming the door behind her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey look who is home…" Mia told Camilla, who was laying on the couch watching TV while fighting a battle with her eyes to keep them open, as she heard the door to the house getting open. Camilla got up yawning and started walking towards the door to see who was there. When Camilla saw her, she began walking faster almost running.

"Mom!" she said throwing her arms onto the open wide arms that were waiting for her hug. "Hi mommy" she said pulling her head from the woman's shoulder and looking into her eyes.

"Hi baby girl…," she said kissing the girl allover her face "I missed you so much" she said and then she noticed that Camilla's hair was a few shades lighter than the last time she had seen her, almost a fading blonde.

"Why did you not come back yesterday?"

"Oh baby I'm so sorry… I had to work." She said wiping the tears that were falling from Camilla's eyes from her cheeks "Mommy has to fix some things then I'll stay with you every minute of every day. I promise."

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"I want to go home" the little girl said whimpering.

"We are home baby, this is our new home." The woman said rubbing Camilla's cheek with her thumb.

"No it's not. I don't like it in here," she said sobbing and wiping her own tears at the same time, "I want to go to our home where Daddy is too" The woman got up from her squatting position holding Camilla against her chest.

"That home, with Daddy doesn't exist anymore." The woman said rubbing the girl's back up and down as the little girl placed her cheek on the woman's shoulder.

"Why?"

"One day when you are a little bit more grown up I will tell you why, okay?" she explained and Camilla nodded against her shoulder as an answer. The woman started walking towards the living room with Camilla, as they entered the living room the confusion that was in there stopped the woman in her track.

"Hi…" Mia greeted her following the woman's eyes that were exploring the living room "I know, I have a good reason for this"

"Have you guys been camping in here?" the woman asked looking around at the amount of blankets and pillows that were everywhere in that living room.

"Well, kind of. She was crying terribly when I put her down to bed that day when you left and I thought that she would choke herself if I left her like that, so I brought her down here and we've been sleeping here ever since." She explained putting her hand on her hips, "I'm sorry I didn't know when you would come back…"

"It's okay, you did the right thing. We can risk her needing to go to a hospital, at least not yet." The woman acknowledged. "I'm going to put her down to bed." She said when she noticed that Camilla was already halfway asleep on her embrace "I'll be right back"

"Okay, I will make us something to eat." Mia said and went to the kitchen as the other woman went upstairs to lay Camilla down because it was already past her bedtime. As she tried to lay her down, the child began to cry so the woman decided to lay down with her while waiting for her to would eventually fall asleep.

"Mommy, you and Daddy didn't hear me calling out for you today?" the little girl asked as she started to close her eyes again "I called out for you, but you didn't hear me…"

"Sweetie is this sleep talking or Camilla talking?" the woman asked her.

"Me" Camilla answered and yawned, "I saw you earlier"

"When? And where?" the woman asked pulling Camilla away from her embrace slowly to look at the child making her reopen her eyes. "When did you see us?"

"I don't know. We had already ate lunch and snacks and then I wanted to go out to play in the park, but Mia said we couldn't go out and then I got sad." She started to explain the story to the woman, who was paying attention to each word that was coming out of Camilla's mouth "And then she told me to not get sad and we playing inside. We built a fort like the one Daddy does sometimes. Then she said that we needed to go somewhere and we met a nice lady, the nice lady gave me cookies," Camilla said and smile at that memory.

"You had a filled day today. So what happened next?" the woman asked eagerly trying to camouflage her impatience to find out the end of Camilla's day summary.

"Next we… we fed the nice lady's fishie and then Mia said we needed to come back to here because it was getting late. Then when we were leaving, I saw you and Daddy getting out of the car and then I screamed Daddy but he didn't hear me so I called out Mommy and you didn't hear me too. I did it two times then Mia put me in her car and we came here. I told Mia that I wanted to be with you but she said I could not say anything about seeing you." Camilla finished her story and yawned.

"I'm sorry we didn't hear you…" the woman said pulling Camilla closer to her body again and hugging her.

"Mommy… I don't want you to leave today," the child whispered with her eyes closed before she fell asleep.

"I won't" she said and kissed Camilla on the top of her head. "I will be here when you wake in the morning." She laid there rubbing Camilla's back until she was sure that she was peacefully asleep and left the room.

"You took her out? And you dyed her hair?" the woman said through clenched teeth as she entered the kitchen once she didn't find Mia in the living room "You left this house with her? Are you crazy?"

"I…I…" the young woman stuttered and then swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat "I had to-"

"YOU HAD TO WHAT?!" the woman blew out and then soothed her voice as she remembered that Camilla was sleeping and she didn't want to wake the child up "Do you have any idea of how dangerous it is to do that?"

"I'm sorry but I had to. You know my mother needs me sometimes and I couldn't call you or anybody else to stay with her…" she said with apologetic eyes.

"Out of the places you could have taken her, you take her to see her to Seattle? What if Alex had seen her?"

"He didn't! I am one hundred percent positive that he didn't. I'm sorry…It won't happen again."

"You are damn sure that it won't! You DON'T EVER take my daughter out of here without my permission!"