Prue opened the door at the top of the attic stairs and crossed the room, intent on opening the windows in hopes of creating a crossbreeze to stir some of the humid air in the room. If she was going to spend the next couple of hours in the stuffy attic, she wanted the air cooled down even just a little bit so that she could think clearly. Piper, Phoebe, and Abby followed her into room, each making herself comfortable in different corners of the attic. Piper and Phoebe settled into two old chairs and Abby planted herself on the floor.

After Prue had opened all the windows, she wiped the dust from her hands onto her shorts and sat down on the floor with Abby. The girl edged closer to her and she wrapped her arm around Abby's shoulders, giving her a quick but comforting hug. "All right, Phoebe, what did you see?" she asked, clearing her throat.

"Okay." Phoebe took a deep breath and held it a moment before letting it out slowly. "Abby and I were telling each other jokes and then, after we finished the ice cream, she wanted to teach me a hand clap game. The second I touched her hand, I saw a guy with dark drown hair and a woman who looked an awful lot like Abby arguing. She was basically saying that he was creeping her out and she wanted him to leave. He got defensive and yelled back at her, saying that she had promised him something and that she couldn't just back out of the agreement. She said that if he wasn't going to leave, she would. He lost it! He--"

"He grabbed both of her arms and squeezed them until she cried," Abby continued. Her voice was a low monotone, almost as if she was in a trance. But the sisters knew she wasn't in a trance. She was remembering. "His eyes turned red for a second and she screamed. She got away from him and grabbed me. I was watching everything from the stairs. She picked me up and ran out of the house. We stayed at a hotel that night."

All three sisters looked up at each other, amazement on all their faces. No wonder Abby didn't want to remember any of what happened. Peter being an abusive husband was bad enough, but the part about his eyes flashing red made him sound demonic.

Prue felt herself growing angry, angrier than she had been in a while. She already hated Peter for abandoning Abby at the mall, but it was starting to come together now. Peter didn't care about Abby at all; he never did. He was simply using her to take revenge on her mother for some perceived injustice. He took her away from a mother who loved her, and he hid her for four years only to get rid of her when he tired of playing daddy. "Abby--" she started, trying to keep her voice from showing how upset she was.

"On the way to the hotel, Mama was crying," Abby went on. Her gaze was fixed on the floor, and even when Prue pulled the girl onto her lap and held her tightly, she didn't look up. "I was too young to really understand anything, but she just kept saying over and over that she was sorry that she met Peter and that she wished Rick was still here. Rick was my real daddy's name. Then she looked over at me and told me she was sorry for everything and that she wouldn't let Peter do anything to hurt us ever again."

"Did he ever hurt you, physically?" Piper asked quietly. It seemed as though all of them had about a zillion questions they wanted to ask, but none of them wanted to say a word. If Abby lost her concentration, she might lose this memory forever.

"He never hit me or anything like that," she answered with a sigh, "but when he got mad, he could be very scary. A couple of days after the night we stayed at the hotel, he took me and we moved out here."

Prue tightened her grip on the little girl, wishing there was something more she could do for her. She longed to turn back time and keep Abby from having to experience any of it, but she knew she couldn't The past is the past; it's over and done with, she told herself. We need to deal with this problem in the present. Unfortunately, dealing with the problem in the present wasn't going to erase what Abby had already been through.

"Weren't they separated when you moved?" Phoebe asked, choosing her words carefully. Abby nodded. "Then how come he was in the house that night?"

Abby leaned back against Prue, finally lifting her teary eyes from the floor. "He'd just show up in the house. I don't know how he got in all the time. I remember Mama changing the locks a couple of times, but he always found a way in."

Prue gave Abby one more comforting squeeze before gently lifting her off her lap. She then stood up and marched over to the Book of Shadows. Abby jumped up and followed Prue to the lectern, ducking under Prue's arm and standing directly in front of her as she began flipping pages furiously. "What are you looking for?" Piper asked quietly.

Prue just shook her head without looking up. She honestly had no idea what she was looking for, but she was certain she'd know it when she saw it. She slowed down just a little, reading the headings at the tops of the pages before quickly turning to the next entry.

"Wait!" Abby exclaimed. "Go back to that last page!"

Prue gasped in surprise at the sudden fierceness in the little girl's voice, but she complied, turning back to a page entitled "The Vorne League". A long page of spidery script was headed by a drawing of a strange symbol, which, according to the information, was the League's seal. It looked like the tines of a pitchfork enclosed in a thick circle. "What is it?"

"That picture! It's the one on Peter's T-shirt."

Piper and Phoebe both jumped out of their seats and crowded around Prue and Abby, peering over Prue's shoulders in order to see the page. "'The Vorne League'," Piper read aloud. "'The Vorne League is a group of demons that use powers of seduction to trick vulnerable mortal women into bearing them an heir to their evil legacy. If, for some reason, the woman breaks off the relationship, the League member gets his revenge by taking what the woman considers her most valuable possession and placing a magical veil over it so that the woman can never find it again'." She shook her head in disbelief. "Nice guys."

"Are you sure?" Prue asked Abby as she skimmed the rest of the page. All the information seemed to fit: Peter latching onto Abby's mother so soon after her husband died, his threats about taking what her mother loved most, no one being able to find records of Abby or her mother anywhere. If she was being magically shielded, of course her name or her mother's name wouldn't show up in the police databases. They wouldn't be able to find each other by any means.

"I'm positive!" Abby exclaimed. "He wore that T-shirt like, every other day. I even asked him about it once, and he said something about getting it from a club he was in in college or something like that."

"Well, girls," Phoebe said with a wide grin, "looks like we have our answer."

**********

Prue read over the page with the information on the Vorne League for about the hundredth time. She had read it so much that she didn't even need to read it anymore. She knew the page by heart.

She had to wonder why Peter had picked Abby's family, of all families he could have chosen. Obviously, it was because Abby's mother fit the profile. She was perfect for what Peter had wanted to do. But still, Prue hated that the little girl's family had been ripped apart by evil.

She sighed and shifted position in the old chair. She didn't understand why this was all upsetting her so much. She had seen mortals' lives disrupted by evil more than a few times. She should be used to it by now. But something about this time was different. Maybe it was because Abby was so young. Or maybe it was because evil had taken Abby's mother away from her just as it had taken Prue's own mother.

"Prue, can I come in?"

Prue gasped, jumping when she heard the tiny voice. She had thought Abby was asleep like she should be, but there she was, standing at the top of the stairs, nervously pulling at her nightgown. "Of course, sweetie," Prue answered. She closed the Book, set it down on the floor at her feet, and patted her lap, inviting Abby to sit down. Abby smiled slightly and ran across the room. She hopped into Prue's lap and rested her head on Prue's shoulder. Prue smiled, twirling a lock of Abby's hair around her finger. "What's up?"

Abby just shrugged. "Peter's evil, isn't he?" she asked after a moment.

"Yeah, sweetie, he is," Prue said as she wrapped her arms around the little girl.

Abby turned around in Prue's lap so that she was sitting sideways. "If he's evil, does that mean he knows about you? About who you are, I mean?"

"Probably." When Abby dropped her gaze to her hands, she tightened her grip on the girl.

Abby leaned into the hug for a moment, then pulled away and jumped off of Prue's lap, tears welling quickly in her eyes. "I can't stay here anymore, Prue. I have to go somewhere else."

Prue gasped again, barely able to hide her surprise. What was she talking about? "What?" She stood up and approached Abby. The little girl backed away. "Abby, what's wrong?"

"I can't stay here! I mean, what if he comes looking for me and he hurts you? I'd never, ever forgive myself and I can't let that happen to you, I just can't . . ." She trailed off, bursting into hysterical sobs.

Prue ran over to the little girl, knelt down in front of her, and hugged her tightly. "Oh, sweetie, shh." She stroked the little girl's hair, trying to calm her down. Abby struggled against her grip for a moment, but she soon stopped, collapsing against Prue. Prue let Abby cry for another couple of minutes before speaking up again. "Sweetheart, this is not your fault. Not at all. I don't think Peter's going to come looking for you and even if he does come back, we can take care of him. And it will not be your fault, you understand me?"

Abby nodded, sniffling. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Prue's neck, sobbing into her shoulder. "This is so unfair," she cried, her voice muffled by her tears. "Am I being punished for something? I'm not a bad girl, am I? What did I do?"

"Abby, listen to me." Prue pulled out of the hug and held Abby at arm's length, staring directly into the girl's pale blue eyes. "You did not do anything wrong. This is just how evil works, sweetie. Evil likes to hurt perfectly innocent people."

Abby shook her head, her sobs returning. "No, I must have done something--"

"Do you remember I told you my mom died?" Prue gently interrupted. She was gripping the girl's shoulders in an effort to make her listen. Abby nodded, wiping her eyes. "The thing I didn't tell you then is that she was killed by evil, the same kind of evil that took your mom away from you. It took me a long time, but I came to realize that I didn't do anything wrong, either. It was just something that happened because evil likes to hurt. It's what evil thrives on, seeing other people in pain."

Abby gazed down at the floor, sniffling. Prue pulled her back into a strong, comforting embrace. "Shh, I know it's hard, sweetie, I know it's hard." Abby wrapped her arms around Prue and squeezed tightly. "Hey, you know what we can do?" she asked after a moment of silence, stroking Abby's hair. She felt Abby shrug. "We can look through the Book of Shadows to see if there's a way to reverse the magical veil on you. What do you say?"

Abby pulled out of the embrace first and nodded, swiping at the tears in her eyes. "Okay."

"That's my girl," Prue said with a smile. She placed her hand on Abby's shoulder and led her back to the chair. Prue sat down and nestled Abby in her lap. Abby reached down and picked up the Book, then she leaned back against Prue, opening the Book to the first page.

Prue and Abby carefully paged through the Book for the next hour. They hadn't found a thing. Prue sighed in irritation, then yawned, the heat of the attic coupled with the hour of reading under dim light making her sleepy. Abby sighed as she turned one more page. "Prue, this is hopeless! We haven't found a thing and you're getting tired."

"Oh, sweetie, it's not hopeless," she answered as she rubbed her eyes. "We still have at least half the Book left. And I'm not getting tired. I just need to rest my eyes."

"I remember my mom using that excuse, too," Abby said, giggling. "If you want to close your eyes, it's okay. I can look for a little bit."

Prue grinned and kissed the top of Abby's head. "Do you know what you're looking for?"

"Something about getting rid of a magical shield?"

She tousled Abby's hair and leaned back against the chair, closing her eyes. "Exactly. I won't be asleep, so if you need me, just call me."

"Okay," Abby said. She turned the page and squinted in the dim light.

It seemed like Prue only had her eyes closed for a minute or two when she heard Abby's voice calling her. "What?" she asked, opening her eyes.

"Sorry I had to wake you up, but is this it?" She pointed down to one of the yellowed pages.

Prue rubbed her eyes, looked down at the page and grinned. "That's it! And I wasn't asleep."

"Please! You were snoring." Abby looked up at her and smiled.

Prue teasingly made a face at her, then turned her attention back to the spell. It was a simple couplet and the only preparation she needed was five white candles set up in a circle. "Want to do it now?"

"Can we really?" Abby turned around in Prue's lap. "I mean, don't you need Piper and Phoebe? It's after midnight and they'll be asleep."

"I don't need them for this one," Prue answered with a smile. She patted Abby's leg and Abby hopped off her lap, holding the Book in her arms. Prue got up out of the chair and headed to the steamer trunk. Somehow all the white candles had settled to the bottom of the trunk, so she had to pull all sorts of things out of the trunk in order to get five of them. When she finally had them all in her hands, she straightened, giggling at the amazement on Abby's face. "Didn't know we had all this stuff, did you?"

Abby shook her head as she bent down to finger a velvet cloak. "This stuff is so cool."

Prue grinned and set the candles up in a small circle. She took the Book from Abby and rested it on the trunk, lit the candles, then took Abby's hand, leading her into the center of the circle. "Okay, hold my hands."

Abby nodded, obediently gripping both of Prue's hands.

Prue looked back once to check the Book to make sure she had the spell memorized correctly. "The magic veil that's now on you, with these words, I'll now undo," she recited. A small gust of wind kicked up, blowing the candles out. When the wind died down, Prue let go of Abby's hands. "Okay, it's done."

Abby shivered, hugging herself to try get rid of the goosebumps on her arms. "Whoa, that was weird."

Prue smiled, set the Book back on the lectern, and began leading Abby downstairs. "Come on, sweetie. Let's go down to bed. We'll check with Andy in the morning to see if he found anything now that the veil's lifted."

"Okay," Abby said through a yawn. She sidled up next to Prue as they walked down the stairs.

Prue smiled again, but as she was tucking Abby into bed, her face fell. If they were able to find Abby's mother, that meant Abby would have to go back with her mom, possibly all the way across the country. And while she was excited at the possibility of reuniting Abby with her mother, she didn't want the little girl to leave. She cared about-- no, she loved Abby, and the idea of having to give her up, even if it was to the girl's mother, depressed her. She knew she should be happy, but she wasn't. It was like the little girl was slipping away, and she desperately wanted to hold onto her. But try as she might, she knew she might not be able to.