Chapter 22

A.N.:

I'm so sorry it took me almost a year to update this story, but I had a huge writer's block and the amount of stress that college brings didn't help either and I hope you haven't given up on this story, but I'm back and hopefully I'll be updating more often now. You can also send me prompts to my tumblr (hello-mynameist dot tumblr dot com) if you want to. Thank you.

-Tiana

March 25th 2023

Exactly seven years ago, March became one of Alex's favorite month. Now for him, since 3 years ago, it was the saddest one. The one that turned his life upside-down. Until this day he hadn't understood what really happened on that day 3 years ago. He used to see it all the time on TV, on movies children that got abducted but never did it cross his mind that his own child would join the list. As Morgan advised him, he hired a private investigator but until today all the work had been fruitless. They found that most likely his daughter was living not far from Seattle for a while but that was just it. They never found the exact place nor the person she was staying with. And the worst part of it was that he had to do it all by himself. He thought that at least he would still have Jo by his side but Jo and him hardly ever talk to each other anymore. And it hurt him. It hurt that she seemed to have moved on but how could someone move on from such traumatic experience? It had been months since the last time they had seen each other. They last saw each other when Jo contacted Alex telling him she was looking for her mother and she stayed for a couple days in Seattle, ever since there he didn't know where she was staying at. He even had to find through Mrs. Schmidt that Jo had left the state and refused to let anyone know her whereabouts. He felt alone in this search for their daughter.

Alex opened the door to that room. He hadn't been in there since left for good. That was the last day he entered there but today he felt the urge to get inside that room again. The room looked pretty much the same since the last time she slept in there. Her bed was never made, her toys were still scattered around the floor and the windows were still closed. Jo never wanted to clean up their daughter's room. She scared it would bring back too many memories, she would find everything she didn't want to. She was trying to forget, he thought. He had to admit that he had never found the strength to clean it up either, until this day. Today he would organize it, because, who knew when she'd be back? He didn't want her to come back to a dirty room. He started by lifting up the blinds and opening the windows, he then took her sheets out of the bed and put them into the washing machine and while it washed he cleaned the rest of her room. He put all her toys in their respective place, clean the dust and vacuumed the room. Every single thing he touched in that room brought him near to tears, to know he had been more than 3 years without his kid, without knowing where she was or how she was, it was too much to bear. He now understood why Jo never wanted to clean up this division of the house, it was too painful. Once everything was clean, he sat in her bed and held her stuffed pink bunny close to his chest. That bunny was the only thing still left in this house that Camilla loved to pieces, she would take it where her anywhere she went. It was the only thing left that made him feel closer to her. So he held it. He held it until he felt his eyes sting and the tears ready to fall.

He looked at the bunny and he saw Camilla through it, "You have probably forgotten about us by now but I didn't. I never will. I still look for you every day and I'll never stop looking. I'm so sorry I failed you, I failed to protect you and I failed to keep you safe. My whole has always been a mess… but I tried, I really did try not to screw this up… Now I lost you and I lost your mom too. You're both gone and I… I still don't know how to move forward, because, how do you move on from this, right? I miss you so much and yeah I miss your mommy too and I know she's not home now but she'll be when I get you back. And I'll have all my three girls with me… yeah three. You, your mom and your sister. Yes, you do have a sister. A big sister, she's asleep downstairs on the couch. I know… I didn't know it either. We only found out a couple months after you went missing and she's pretty amazing. She reminds me so much of you and she gives me strength to get up every morning and make it through another day. Every time I think about giving up she reminds me of why I shouldn't. I owe it to her… I owe it to you. I can't leave you both alone in this cold and cruel word. I don't know where you are or how you are but, wherever you are right now I just hope that you're not feeling lonely and scared and I hope you're being loved and that someone's taking good care of you until the day I bring you back home. I love you so, so much and I miss you even more and it hurts so bad not being able to see you every day or to hear you giggling. God… I would give my life just to see your face one more time. I never understood when people said you can't love someone as much as you can miss them, but now I do and I wish I didn't know how that feel, I wish I didn't know how much that hurts… this feeling that sucks the life out of you slowly, little by little and it gets worse every passing minute. I try to be strong, I try not to let my guard down for Abby, and it feels like I'm living two different lives, the real one and the one I created so that Abby would have shoulder to lean on whenever she needs it. She de-"

"Daddy?" Abby's voice interrupted his monologue and pulled him out of the trance he was in. "Dad, where are you?" he heard her voice coming closer to where he was, so he wiped his face free of tears and cleared his throat.

"In here" he said getting up and went to open the door wanting to leave the room but his eldest child beat him to that and opened the door before him.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked him wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him making him lean down and kiss her on top of her head.

"No one. Just thinking out loud." He said and she looked up and that's when she saw how red hid eyes were.

"You were crying…"

"No, it's just all that dust inside… You know, I was cleaning and there was too much dust…" he lied.

"It's okay, daddy. You can cry… It's not a bad thing" she said hugging him tighter and placing her head in the middle of his chest "Know what's not good?"

"What?" he said with smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"To bottle it all up." She said and he knew she couldn't be more right. It amazed him how his twelve year old was as wise as she was and in that moment he felt like he hadn't been as great of a dad as he could be to her. He had put a lot energy in the search of his youngest child that he felt as if he had neglected his oldest. "That's not good." She said and looked up at him smiling. He decided that he would give his everything to her, not that he wasn't giving up on Camilla, he was just accepting that maybe one day faith would bring her back to them.

"I love you kid."

"I love you too daddy"

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April 2023

"Jo?" a man's voice came from behind her and it gave her the chills. She decided to ignore it hoping it'd go away but it didn't, he called her that name again. She thought no one would recognize her here but she was wrong "Jo Wilson? Is that you?" she finally decided to turn around and met the face of the man who was pronouncing that name.

"Um… hey" she said and she hoped it wasn't written on her face how nervous she was but by the looks he was giving her she knew he could tell she was nervous.

"So is really you…" he smirked. "Who knew we'd meet again" he said following her eyes and landing on a child not too far from where they were both standing.

"Look…" she hesitated and he noticed again because there was no way she wouldn't remember him "I'm in a hurry"

"You don't remember me? After what you did to me? You ru-"

"Mom, I didn't find it" the girl said approaching them making them both look at her and the man frown.

"Didn't she-" he started perplexed by the kid's presence but was interrupted by her.

"I have to go…" she said already walking away with the kid.

"Mom? Mommy, stop!" she whined "Why are we running for?"

"Just keep walking" she answered fastening her steps and pulling the girl never looking back until she reached the parking lot of the supermarket.

"Who is he, mommy?" she asked pointing to the man a few feet behind them and that was when she realized he was following them.

"Get in the car." She demanded startling her child and making her cry.

"No, mommy…" she cried getting closer to her mother in fear instead of doing what she was told.

"It's okay. Just go, I'll get in just in a bit." She reassured her making the child nod and look at the man with fear in her eyes. She had never seen him before, what if he hurt her mom? "I'll be okay, I promise."

"Okay." They both looked to the girl as she climbed in the backseat of the car and once she was inside the car he shook his head incredulously.

"Oh this is so great," he laughed "People will love to know who Jo Wilson really is"

"What?!" she asked him furious "What do you want?"

"What do I want? I don't want anything from you… I just never thought you could kidnap your own child." As soon as those words left his mouth she felt her whole world collapse. He knows.