Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
epilogue one
Victoria
Three months later
The phone rings by my desk and I lean back in my chair, seeing it’s Seth calling me. “Hello.” It’s been a while since our project at the church, so I’m surprised to be hearing from him.
“Hey, Tori,” he says my name, “it’s Seth.”
“Hey, Seth.” I look over to the two offices, hearing clicking coming from Kylie as she types on her keyboard. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering if you are at your office.” His tone is tight, and he has never asked this before.
“I am.” I sit up now. “Is everything okay?” I ask him.
“Not sure,” he replies, “but I can be at your office in about five minutes.”
“I’ll be here.” I disconnect the phone, putting it down and getting up to walk over to Lexi’s office. “Seth just called; he’s going to be here in five.” She looks over at me and her eyebrows pinch together. “Yeah, that was my reaction too.”
“Is this a meeting and I didn’t know?” Kylie asks when she sticks her head out of her office and walks into Lexi’s.
“Seth is coming here,” I inform Kylie, who gives me the same look that Lexi gave me.
The door to the office opens and I turn to walk out, followed by the two of them. I stop dead in my tracks when I see Seth, who is standing beside a woman we’ve met at the church during our first visit, holding a child on her hip that is about as old as Jagger and also holding the hand of a little girl. “Hey,” I say, smiling, trying not to give off anything, “this is a nice surprise.”
“Hi,” Seth returns. “Good, you are all here.” He looks at Lexi and Kylie behind me. “This saves me a phone call.”
“Please sit,” Lexi speaks up and points to the couch beside my desk. “Can I get you guys anything to drink?” She looks at the woman. “Water, juice, coffee?”
“No.” The woman’s voice is soft.
Seth puts his arm on her lower back and ushers her to the couch. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
“Of course,” I reply, sitting on the couch, facing the woman who is softly shaking, and I have to wonder if she even realizes she’s shaking. She moves the baby on her lap and she sits with her legs over hers while she puts the little girl to sit between her and Seth.
“I don’t know if you remember.” He smiles at us. “This is Kennedy,” Seth introduces the woman. “This is Serafina and this is baby JJ. She has been helping out in the kitchen at the church the last couple of months.”
“It’s nice to see you again,” Kylie says, sitting on the armrest of the couch I’m sitting on. “What can we do to help?”
“Kennedy is best friends with my sister,” Seth starts to say, “and she just let us know about some things that are happening at home.”
“Which is?” Lexi asks softly.
“My husband,” she starts to say and then her voice trembles so she stops, and I can feel my stomach drop. “He’s…” She shakes her head. “No one is going to believe me.” She looks at her daughter, who looks up at her. “He’s…” Her lower lip quivers. “He’s not right with me.” She doesn’t need to spell it out, you can see the fear all over her body.
“How about I take the kids out of the room?” Seth says, holding out his hand for Seraphina and then grabbing JJ.
We all wait for him to walk into the other room when Lexi starts, “What about with the children?” She shakes her head no.
“It’s just me,” she shares, “but I’m afraid as time goes on, it’ll be—”
“That he’ll turn on your children,” Lexi fills in her thought and she nods her head.
“I’m ready to leave him but—” She looks at all of us. “I have nothing. He has control of everything.” I swallow the lump. “And he’s got a good job.”
“Of course he does,” Kylie says and looks at Lexi.
“He’s going to fight me for custody.” The fear is written all over her face, the bottom of her eyes filling with tears as she fights them back.
“Do you have anything documented?” Lexi is asking all the questions as I just sit here feeling helpless.
“I do,” she confirms. “I have medical records that support my claim.” Seth comes back in the room and stands by the door so he can watch the kids.
“I also have—” She looks at her hands trying to decide if she’s going to tell us what she needs to tell us, “I have hours and hours of recordings. Some while he was beating me.”
My hand goes to grip Kylie’s leg, and she puts her hand on top of mine. “I’m afraid he’s going to hurt me and then my babies will have no one.”