Chapter Eleven
A/N: Thank you to TheDarkMistressBellatrix for reviewing the last chapter.
Unable to stop herself, Julia let out a cry, her hand flying to her mouth to muffle it, though it could be heard clearly all the same. For a moment, more than a moment, she had thought that her search was over, that she had found both her husband and her daughter as a pair, and that they could be a family once again, as they had been for all too short a time, half a decade previous to where they stood now, with no child to complete the set.
"Hey, Julie, it's alright." Caleb attempting to comfort his wife, wrapping his arms tightly around her, so as to offer her some security. Once she had calmed a little, a few seconds later, he began to question her, his eagerness to discover what had become of his daughter equal to Julia's eagerness to find her had been. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know. I really don't know." Julia cried out, her eyes widening as she suddenly realised the terrible truth of the situation. Her hand flew to her mouth, to muffle the cries coming from it, and to slow the tears that were flowing freely down her cheeks, gliding over the back of her hand as well. The man pulled his wife close once again, but this time she fought, and freed herself from his grasp, using the same back of her hand to wipe the streams of water away, before standing tall once again. When she spoke once again, her voice was choked with tears, but she continued nonetheless, showing a strength that neither Caleb nor David, who was watching his mother in sadness, had ever seen in her before. "But I do know this. We are going to find a clue, and that clue is going to lead us to our Maddy, and then everything will be alright."
"Yes, Mom, that's right." David agreed, taking one of his mother's hands, despite the questioning stare that he was currently receiving from her husband, who had still not been given an explanation as to why the boy was calling her his mother, given that that part of the conversation had been long since forgotten in the whirlwind of sadness that had swept over them all, as they had realised that poor little Maddy was still nowhere to be found, still lost, and they did not have a further hope in finding her. "We'll find her, and everything will be alright. I promise that it will."
"I hope so." the woman sighed, somehow finding the ability to place a watery smile on her face. True, she may not know whether it was the truth, but the boy had faith in her, giving her cause to have faith in herself, for the first true time since she had discovered the loss of her daughter. If he believed in her, then she could achieve anything. "I don't know how long it will take, but we will find her, and we will bring her home."
"And when we do, she will have both parents waiting for her." Caleb added, entwining his hand with his wife's free one. All at once, Julia's determination once again returned to her, and so she, alongside her two boys, began to search once more for clues to Maddy's whereabouts.
Seconds passed, minutes, perhaps even hours, but they found nothing. There were no further hints, no footprints, nothing else that the little girl had dropped, nor was there anything which could lead them to finding the identity of the kidnapper. As the moon raised itself high in the sky, Julia was finally, reluctantly, forced to give in, for the sake of her son, who she should have taken home a long time ago. It would do her daughter no good, after all, should she become ill from the chilling winds of the seaside after night had fallen, and so she eventually gave in, returning to Collinwood with an expression of worry etched deep into her features.
"Don't worry, Julie. We'll find her tomorrow." her husband promised, and for the first time in a long while, the redhead found herself believing a person right away, when she had always before taken a great deal of time to trust the people around her, that is if she had ever managed to do so at all. After the loss of her husband, the only one in whom she had been able to confide, the woman had not really allowed herself to believe in anyone else. Except for David, perhaps, anyway.
"I just need her to be back with me, for me to know that she's safe." the woman sighed, unable to stop herself from confessing the fact. Her tears had long since dried when they were searching on the beach, as she had been so desperate to return to finding evidence, but now, the pent up sadness flooded over once more, tear tracks streaking down the pink of her cheek as they reached the doorway of the large house. "This is completely my fault. I should never have taken her away from Cairan and Kathy. It's obvious that someone has a grudge against me if they want to take her just when I have her. Whatever I've done to hurt someone, it could have cost my baby girl her life. And I will never be able to forgive myself for that."
Caleb once again opened his mouth to comfort her, but before he could do so, the woman took David by the hand, pulling him inside the door and closing it behind her. She had not meant to be rude, and the last person she would ever be annoyed with was a husband that she had loved, lost and found again that night, but he was the father of her daughter, and she could not be reminded any more of the child than she was at present, for fear that her heart might crack in two.
For a moment, and only a moment, she lingered in the entrance hall of Collinwood, but when she saw the young Collins boy open his mouth, she fled up the staircase, seeking solitude in her own room. Little did she know that, in the shadows beside the stairs, a man lurked, an evil smile illuminating his features as he considered what he had done, and what he was going to do.
"It is time that Julia Hoffman got what she has coming to her."
A/N: Please review!