CHAPTER 6

“I ’m glad you’ve made a friend, Hollis. Just because I’m sick, doesn’t mean you have to spend every moment of the day and night with me.”

“I want to spend time with you. We lost so much,” she replied, patting her mother’s thigh. “Can I get you more tea?”

“No, it’s my bedtime, I’m afraid. And tell her yes,” her mother suggested.

“It’s just coffee. And I’ll see her at group later this week,” she replied.

“Hollis, she reached out to you. That’s not an easy thing to do when you’re spending every moment of your life thinking about your little girl being out there without you. I’d know.”

“When we went to the diner after the last group meeting, we hardly talked about what happened to me or to her daughter. It was honestly kind of awkward.”

She and Raleigh had gone to the diner down the street from the community center. Hollis had ordered awful black tea, not wanting another coffee, and Raleigh had gotten coffee and a slice of apple pie. She’d offered Hollis a bite, but Hollis hadn’t been hungry. Then, they’d just sat in silence for a few minutes before Raleigh asked her what it was like being a librarian these days, with everyone reading on their phones and tablets. The small talk had continued like that for about thirty minutes. Then, Hollis had finished her tea and said she needed to get home. They’d exchanged numbers as they’d walked back to the community center for their cars in case either of them wanted to grab coffee again sometime.

Raleigh had messaged her the day before, asking if she wanted to get that coffee, but Hollis had declined because her mom had been having a bad day. She’d also declined because she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go to coffee with Raleigh again. There wasn’t anything wrong with her, but their first attempt had been so awkward that Hollis wasn’t sure it was worth repeating.

“She might not have been ready to share just with you, one-on-one like that. And you weren’t ready to share with her. That’s okay.”

“What if I don’t want a friend who would just remind me of what happened?”

“You don’t have to be friends, I guess. You can be there to support her, and she can support you, but you can call it something else.”

“Like a sponsor in AA? Does it work like that when you were kidnapped by your own father?”

“I don’t know,” her mom said, standing up slowly from the sofa. “But I do know that I need to get some sleep. And I think you could use someone, Hollis. It can be this Raleigh. It could be a doctor or someone else entirely. You’ve been so focused on me and finding a job here.”

“I went to group. I shared,” Hollis said.

“And that’s great, honey. If that’s all you think you need, skip the coffee. But if you think you could use someone else to talk to, maybe consider giving it a chance.”

After Hollis put her mom to bed, she went into her old childhood bedroom and sat on the bed. She’d done this a few times since she’d arrived, and she usually just stared at the wall across from the bed. This time, she noticed an old, framed photo on top of the white dresser with pink and purple flowers painted on it. She hadn’t really noticed it before, but it looked off somehow. Hollis stood up and walked over. After removing it from the frame, she realized the picture had been folded back. It was of her with both of her parents, except her mother had folded back her father in the image, so it was just Hollis and Olivia. Hollis stared at the smiling family and wondered what had gone so wrong in their marriage that he’d felt the need to steal his own daughter from her mother.

She put the photo back as she found it and went to the guest room, her new room, to try to get some sleep, but hours later, she knew it wouldn’t come. She kept thinking of that smiling family and how her mother was sick and dying while her father was in that orange jumpsuit. She reached for her phone then and sent a quick text. It wasn’t exactly appropriate. It was after midnight. She shouldn’t be disturbing Raleigh this late. But almost immediately, there was a response. So, Hollis dressed in a worn pair of jeans and a sweater, checked on her mother, who was still asleep, and headed out in her rental car.

“Hi,” Raleigh greeted as Hollis entered the diner. “I hope you don’t mind… I ordered you coffee since it was pretty clear you hated the tea last time.”

Hollis smiled as she sat across from the woman and said, “Thanks. And it was pretty bad.”

“It’s just a tea bag in water. How do they ruin that?”

“No idea,” Hollis replied. “Thank you for coming.”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Raleigh said.

“I thought it might be too late.”

“No, I’m up late most nights,” Raleigh told her. “I don’t sleep well these days.”

The waitress arrived with their coffees and a bowl full of individual creamers.

“I can imagine,” Hollis said because she didn’t know what else to say to that, knowing the cause of her insomnia.

“How’s your mom?” Raleigh asked.

“She’s sleeping right now, which, I’m pretty sure, is the only time she doesn’t feel pain, but she’s in good spirits.”

“Well, yeah. You’re finally home,” Raleigh replied.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” She shrugged a shoulder.

“This isn’t weird for you?”

“What?” Raleigh asked as she added a creamer to her coffee.

“Talking to me like this.”

“Why would it be?”

“I was a little girl kidnapped, and your daughter…”

Raleigh nodded as she stirred her coffee.

“It’s a little weird, yeah.”

“Do you get coffee with the others?”

“I’ve come here with Molly once or twice, but not really, no. She pitied me those nights. I broke down, and she needed to get home to her husband and kids, but she came here with me and bought me a coffee instead. She tries to look out for us.”

“Why me, then?”

“I don’t know,” Raleigh said. “You’re around my age. The rest are either much older or younger. Then, there’s the obvious.”

“What’s the obvious?”

“You might know what she’s going through,” Raleigh explained. “I know it’s a completely different circumstance. Her dad is an anonymous sperm donor who doesn’t even know she exists, so he didn’t take her. But someone else did, and you know what that’s like.”

“Oh,” Hollis said, adding creamer to her own coffee. “But you know I really don’t, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know I was taken. I just thought I was going on a road trip with my dad. My whole life, I thought my mom was dead, that I had no other family, and that I was living my life like every other person. I didn’t know what had happened until I saw my face on a book cover.”

“Kenna’s book, right?”

“Yeah. I guess it was a good thing I worked in the library. I was on donations that day. I saw it and then read it, and I knew I was Hollis Richardson. Nothing had ever felt so right and yet so very wrong to me in my life.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Raleigh said, looking down at her coffee cup as she gripped the mug in both hands. “I’m doing her show next week.”

“I know,” Hollis replied.

Raleigh looked up.

“I work for the show now,” Hollis added.

“You work on the show?”

“I needed a job. I met with Kenna to talk about my mom and me doing an episode, and she offered me an interview for a researcher. I started two days ago. It’s not exactly what I want, but it’s money, and it keeps me focused on something other than my father being in jail and my mother being so sick.”

“So, you’re doing an episode, too?”

“We’re supposed to. I keep putting it off, though. I’m worried about my mom. She says she’s up for it, but I don’t know… It just seems like a bad idea, making her relive everything again.”

“I can see that. But if she’s saying she can do it, you kind of have to trust her on that, right?”

Hollis nodded and took a drink.

“This is terrible, too,” she noted.

Raleigh laughed and said, “Well, Starbucks is a block away, but they’re closed, so you get what they’ve got.”

Hollis laughed and replied, “I guess so.” She set the cup down. “I wanted to meet with you to tell you I’d be there for the episode next week. I would’ve mentioned it when you messaged me the first time about grabbing coffee, but my mom was throwing up, and I–”

“It’s okay. I understand. Your mom comes way before a terrible diner coffee and a stranger asking you to meet. You’ll be there?”

“In the studio, yeah,” Hollis said. “Not working the episode or anything; I’ll just be working. I just thought you should know. It’s likely we’ll run into each other.”

Raleigh nodded and said, “I’m nervous.”

“Being on camera?”

“Talking about her on camera. I did some news stuff when she first went missing, but I was in shock the whole time, so I wasn’t really processing what was happening back then. Now, I have a clear head, and I’m pretty sure I’ll burst into tears the moment I start talking about Eden.”

“I get the impression Kenna is great at her job. She’ll make you feel comfortable. And if you need to cry, just cry. Your daughter was taken from you. The way I see it, you can cry anytime you want until they find her.”

Raleigh’s eyes welled with tears, but they didn’t fall.

“Did you?” she asked Hollis .

“Did I what? Cry?”

“Yeah.”

“I cry all the time these days,” Hollis admitted. “Just when I think I’m out of tears, I somehow find more.”

“I cry at least once a day,” Raleigh shared. “Usually, more at night, which is why I rarely sleep through it and why I am now here, drinking awful coffee with you.”

“Let’s try to get some good coffee sometime,” Hollis said, smiling softly at her. “During the day, when the reputable establishments in this town are open.”

Raleigh laughed and said, “That sounds good to me.”

“So, I never asked last time. What is it that you do?”

“I’m a VA.”

“VA?”

“Virtual assistant. I have a bunch of clients, and I take care of the things that they need done. It’s administrative, mostly, but it allows me to work from home, which was great when I had Eden because…” Raleigh faded out and looked down at her coffee.

“You could be with her all the time,” Hollis finished for her.

“Yes. But now, I can work from home still, and in between tasks, I can update the page I made for her and check for leads from people who might have seen her. It’s better than some desk job where I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Do you like what you do?” Hollis asked.

“It works for me. I’m no millionaire, but I make enough to support us and buy the house, which is a three-bedroom, so I have an office, and she has her own room.” She looked down again. “Had.”

“No, you got it right the first time,” Hollis told her. “She has a room. And it will be waiting for her when she gets home, Raleigh.” She reached over and took Raleigh’s hand, pulling it off the mug and sliding her own on top of it. “She’ll come home to you.”

“God, I hope so,” she replied, squeezing Hollis’s hand tightly.