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  Maybe he had left the door open accidentally. Macy looked into their bedroom and saw Rebekah sleeping.

  Macy appeared to be in the clear. She took a deep breath, dropping the rags onto the floor. Her heart felt like it was going to pound right out of her chest.

  Who knew if she would find anything? But the way he kept it locked up all the time, there was no way she could just leave the room alone. If she walked in and found a camera pointed at her, she could later say that she had been making sure everything was okay since he always leaves the door closed.

  She pushed the door open ever so slowly. It creaked slightly, but opened easily enough. Holding her breath, she walked in, not knowing what to expect. She half-expected to see pictures and graphs all over the walls, like she always saw on TV when murderers were stalking someone.

  It just looked like a regular home office, though. There was a desk piled with papers. A laptop sat there, screen off. A floor-to-ceiling shelf held books and knick knacks. Papers were scattered on the floor underneath a window with drawn shades.

  Macy scanned the room, looking for a hidden camera, but didn't see anything. She knew if there was anything recording her, if she took a step into the room, that would be all it would take for her to end up locked away somewhere. Maybe for good.

  She walked over to the desk and looked at the piles of papers without touching anything. The laptop seemed to call her, but she was certain if she got online, he would know. But what if she just looked at some files? Would he know that?

  It wasn't a risk Macy was willing to take. She could pick up some papers and he wouldn't know, but he probably had ways he was monitoring his computer.

  A crashing noise startled her. Macy jumped and ran to the doorway, looking down the hall. She didn't see anything. Going down to Chester's bedroom, she checked on Rebekah and saw her lunch tray on the floor. She must have rolled over and knocked it down. How had it not woken her?

  Macy went over and checked on her breathing and then picked up the mess from the floor. She brought the tray back out to the kitchen and then returned to Chester's study. She looked at the papers sitting on his desk, memorizing their placement. Then she picked up a few, looking through them.

  They were all boring. Bills, from what she could tell. She was about to set them back into place when she froze. Now on top of the desk sat a paper with big words on the top: Shady Hills Mental Health Facility.

  Was that where Heather had been taken? Was she still there? Heather had never returned to fill out any more of her diaries that Macy could find, so Macy knew nothing beyond the fact that Heather had been sent there.

  Macy scanned the paper. The letter was addressed to Chester Woodran, the non-custodial father. So they had removed his parental rights. Macy had been right.

  He had kidnapped her because he couldn't get his real daughter back.

  Macy read it as fast as she could, knowing that she needed to get the living room clean before Chester returned. According to the letter, Heather had behavioral problems and didn't show any signs of being ready to be released.

  If Chester had lost his parenting rights, why were they sending him updates? Did he still have some kind of right even though he didn't have custody?

  Macy knew time was ticking by. She didn't know where Chester had gone, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to hurry out of the study.

  Heather wasn't crazy. She had read the girl's diary entries. Considering she had lived with a monster her entire life and had to deal with the murder of her mom who she'd been so close to, Heather was probably acting out because no one would listen to her. Obviously no one believed Chester to be a murderer if he was being sent updates about Heather.

  Maybe together, she and Heather could get him thrown into jail. They definitely could get him for kidnapping. The murder charges would be more difficult if they didn't have a body, but at least they could get him in prison. Surely premeditated kidnapping would be a long sentence.

  Macy put the papers back on the desk where they had been. She backed out of the room and looked at the door. It had been left slightly open, but Chester didn't know that. Or did he?

  What if he asked if she went in? Her heart sped up. She would have to lie. Not only that, but she would have to practice it until he came back home. She would have to be convincing. Unless he really hadn't noticed.

  It was strange that he would be so careless though. It had to be a setup. But she closed the door. Living with him was making her crazy. It was a door. A door. And that was all it took for her to have an argument with herself.

  Macy went into the living room and cleaned as fast as she could. Chester wouldn't notice anything because it wasn't a trap. He wouldn't do that because of how protective he was over that room. He wouldn't give her access to it just to see what she would do.

  Opportunity

  Macy sat up in bed, gasping for air. Sweat dripped into her face, and she wiped it away. She'd had another dream about being locked up in the barn. She squeezed the soft comforter, breathing heavily.

  It was just a dream. It wasn't real. Not this time anyway. She hadn't had a dream about going back there in a while. It had to have been the guilt—if that was the right word—about sneaking into Chester's office.

  He hadn't said a word about it when he came home. In fact, he'd been distracted about something, not even bothering to criticize the way Macy had cleaned the living room. Usually, he enjoyed pointing out every small thing she hadn't cleaned perfectly.

  Her throat was dry and she needed something to drink. The last thing Macy wanted to do was to leave the bedroom and risk running into either Chester or Rebekah. The alarm clock showed that it was just before three in the morning, so the chances of them being up were low, but not impossible.

  Rebekah was sometimes up at strange times, especially since she spent most of the days in bed resting. Chester…well, he was Chester. He took pride in being unpredictable, so there was no telling where he would be or when.

  Macy's eyes were heavy and it was tempting to go back to sleep, but her throat almost hurt it was so dry. She climbed out of bed, listening for any sound. If she heard anything, she would just deal with the dry throat. There was no way she was going to face either one of them if she didn't have to.

  Once she got over the stress of the nightmare, the dryness would most likely go away. But if they were both sleeping, she would rather drink some water and be done with it.

  Everything was quiet, so she sneaked into the kitchen and poured water into a cup without making any noise.

  After she drank two full glasses of water, she headed back to the bedroom, but before she got there, she noticed a slight breeze before she got to the hall. Why would there be a breeze? Chester didn't open any windows—ever. Most of them were rigged so as to be impossible to open. They had either been bolted or painted shut, plus they were attached to the alarm system.

  Macy walked toward the front door. That was where the breeze felt like it was coming from. She looked around and noticed the door to the garage was cracked open.

  What was going on? Why was Chester being so careless all of a sudden? Did it have to do with whatever was distracting him? What was distracting him?

  She pushed the door slightly, half-expecting the alarm to sound even though she knew it wouldn't since it was already open. She peeked in and saw that his truck was gone.

  As far as Macy knew, he only left the house about once a week, but now twice in a day?

  A noise outside startled her and she jumped. Macy heard the mechanical sounds of the garage door gearing up to open. She closed the door all the way and ran back to the bedroom. Her heart raced and her mouth was dry, despite having just had two glasses of water.

  She closed the door and leaned against it, breathing hard, but trying to stay quiet. There was a thud. It sounded like the door to the garage slamming shut.

  Macy put her ear to the door. Chester was always talking to himself so maybe he would say something that woul
d tell Macy what was going on. It had to be something big if he was being so careless, leaving the doors open.

  His footsteps went down the hall. Macy braced herself, ready to jump into bed and pretend to sleep. He walked past the door, talking to himself as usual. It wasn't anything that gave her any clues. He was only saying something about someone being a complete moron.

  That could have referred to just about anyone. He thought everybody was stupid and often expressed his disdain for humanity in general.

  Macy thought about his parents. They were so sweet, how could Chester have possibly come from them? His mom was always so nice to everyone. His dad was crotchety, sure, but in an endearing way. He was nothing like Chester.

  Her eyes grew heavy again as her heart rate returned to normal. She was too curious to give in. Macy went to the wall that connected to Chester and Rebekah's walk-in closet. If the door was open, maybe she could hear something.

  Pressing her ear to the wall, she could hear some muffled shuffling noises, but nothing else. He had to have stopped grumbling to keep from waking Rebekah. Was he trying to keep his middle-of-the-night excursion a secret from her, too?

  She froze. Voices. They were speaking to each other. She could only hear two tones, no words. They were both talking, but what were they saying? There had to be a way to find out.

  Macy cupped her hands and put them against the wall and listened. It was better, but not by much. She was able to pick up a few words here and there, but not enough to tell her anything. She tried harder, but wasn't able to hear anything.

  She had to go to the bathroom. Probably from drinking all that water. That was the excuse she needed. She made her way back to the door and opened it.

  Their voices traveled through the hall. If she went a little closer to their door, she might be able to hear what they were discussing. Her heart raced, making it harder to listen. She took several deep breaths as she made her way to their door.

  She stood in front of the wall, just next to the door. Rebekah was talking and she sounded irritated. Macy could only make out a few words, but she couldn't make sense of them, so she inched closer.

  Now Chester was speaking. "It's better than I thought."

  "How can you be sure?" Rebekah asked. "You weren't gone long enough to be able to give a good enough examination. Not only that, but it's dark."

  "What would you have me do? Take a day trip?"

  "That would make a lot more sense, don't you think?"

  "What would I tell Heather? We can't tell her about this yet."

  Macy's eyes widened. They couldn't tell her what?

  "You don't have to tell her where you're going, Chet. Just tell her you have an errand. You don't owe her an explanation. She's just a child. Tell her you need to take care of something and that I'm in charge. End of story."

  "I suppose, but she's going to figure out that something's going on."

  "Let her wonder. She'll find out soon enough."

  Macy tip-toed closer.

  "How are we going to keep her in line? We have to make sure she doesn't try anything."

  "You could always lock her up like you've been talking about. But she wouldn't be able to take care of me while you're gone. I can't make my own food. I can barely stand up without getting sick."

  "Are you sure I can't take you to a doctor?"

  "Doctors are evil, Chet. You know that. The medicines they use, they use them to control people's minds. It's a rough pregnancy, that's all. I've seen it many times back home at the community. What we need is for you to go back to the land and really look at it—in the daylight. Otherwise, we won't really know if it's the right place to start our new community."

  The blood drained from Macy's face. They were planning to start a new community?

  She walked back to the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

  Macy knew deep down in her gut if they entered a new community, she wasn't getting out. Chester would make sure of it, and it sounded as though Rebekah was behind him.

  That also explained why she was still studying the community writings. Rebekah and Chester would be the new Jonah and Eve.

  If he was going to be gone for an entire day and Rebekah could barely get out of bed, that would be her chance to get away. Chester wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

  Macy wouldn't go back to another community. She just couldn't. Escape was her only option, and fast. Macy climbed back into bed, her mind racing but her body exhausted. Her eyes fought to close while every inch of her ached.

  How would she get out? Simply go out the front door and let the alarm wail?

  Macy pulled the covers up close to her face as the drowsiness took over. She sniffed them, smiling. They smelled so nice and fresh because she had washed all the linens earlier. If nothing else, being kidnapped had taught her to find joy in the little things.

  Macy finally gave into her heavy eyelids and thought of ways to escape as she drifted off.

  Resolve

  Chad looked out the front window again. He expected Alyssa to walk through the door, but it was clear she was serious about going somewhere to get space.

  As tempting as it was to call her friends one by one, Chad knew it was a bad idea. She wanted space and if he called, she would push him away even further.

  He went upstairs to where Alex and Zoey were doing their studies as usual at the kitchen table.

  "Is Mom still sleeping?" Alex asked.

  How to answer that one? Chad would have to tell him some version of the truth, but he couldn't bear to give him all of it. Was it because he didn't think Alex could handle it…or because he didn't think he himself could?

  Chad cleared his throat. "She's been having a hard time dealing with everything, so she's gone to a friend's house."

  "For how long?" Alex asked.

  "Until she's able to think clearly."

  "Did you two get into a fight, Dad?"

  "She just needs space to think. It was too much being here where there are so many memories of Macy. That's all."

  Alex didn't look convinced. "If you say so."

  "I do. Are you two going to be okay if I go out for a little while? I have to pick up some stuff from the store."

  "Whatever." Alex went back his laptop.

  Zoey gave Chad a sympathetic look.

  "If you guys need anything, I'll keep my cell phone close."

  "Okay." Alex didn't look up.

  Chad frowned, but didn't say anything. The last thing he needed was for Alex to decide to move into Zoey's house. Not that he would let them stay there alone, but Valerie was due back with Zoey's dad soon and the tables could turn all too easily. Then he would be alone in the house.

  He went down to his office and grabbed his cell phone and wallet. Who was he kidding? He didn't know what they needed from the store. Maybe he would get some takeout for lunch and then they could use the leftovers for dinner too. Or he could pick up some milk and eggs.

  A lump formed in his throat. He wasn't cut out to do the single dad thing. He also didn't want to do anything to make things worse with the child who was still with him. Hopefully Alyssa would come around because they had been getting along so well before the argument.

  He had been excited about the thought of Macy coming back home to find them getting along. He already knew that dream was a long shot, but with Alyssa now thinking that Macy was dead, the dream was nearly crushed.

  Even though it did cause a fight between him and Alyssa, he wasn't going to change his stance. He would hold onto his belief until there was hard evidence. And when Macy did get back, she deserved to have a kitchen full of food.

  That was it. He would go to the store and buy every vegan item he could find. He would even try some of it. That way, when she got back, they could eat that crazy stuff together, no matter what it tasted it like.

  Chad shut off his laptop and went into the garage, on a mission. Maybe he would even grow to like the vegan foods. He knew he could stand to lose a few more pounds
. Some weight had come off because he hadn't been eating as much, but there was still room for improvement.

  Perhaps if he lost those last few pounds, it would be enough to convince Alyssa to stay home. She was always so fit and healthy, and even though he wasn't what anyone would call overweight, his love handles had to be a turn off for someone as beautiful as her.

  He started the car and drove to the grocery store, but before he got there, he saw the natural grocery store that Macy liked so much. He smiled, remembering how she had chattered on about it when they were building it. Yes, that was where he would go.

  Pulling into the parking lot, he felt more alive than he had in a long time. Chad was going to win back his wife and have something in common with his daughter when she got back. Since he was on a roll, he knew he would think of something brilliant to bring him closer to Alex also.

  He walked through the automatic sliding doors and immediately he felt overwhelmed. This place looked nothing like the grocery stores he went to with Alyssa. To the left, there were enormous displays of fresh fruit, half of which he didn't recognize. To the right was a line of checkout stands. Everyone in line had their own cloth bags, and there wasn't a plastic bag in sight.

  His nose tingled. It even smelled different in there. Not bad, just different. He didn't have a clue what the scent was, but he figured it was something natural. He scanned the store, trying to figure out where to begin.

  "Hey, stranger."

  Chad turned around to see Lydia standing next to him. "You shop here?"

  "Of course. My body is a temple." She smiled, flipping her dark hair behind her shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

  "Shopping for my family." He put the emphasis on the word family due to their past.

  "I would have expected you to go to the discount grocery down the road."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Just that you're a pizza and beer kind of guy."