Jude's chest tightened. He could picture three-year-old Angelica in Duncan's arms, surrounded by the love of her family. She’d had the very best family, and hopefully soon, she’d see that for herself.
"What about you, Kiara?" Jude asked, turning his attention to the other young woman. "Do you remember anything from before your adoption?"
Kiara's expression hardened. "More than I wish I did. My parents were hateful people. I was happiest when they would completely neglect me.”
"I'm sorry," Jude said, meaning it. The stark contrast between the two young women's experiences before adoption spoke volumes, even though they weren’t aware of the details of that disparity.
"Don't be." Kiara shrugged, though her eyes remained hard. "I survived. And now I have Angie."
Angelica smiled faintly at her sister, and Jude noticed how her posture relaxed slightly at the mention of their bond. The connection between them was palpable—forged, he suspected, through years of shared hardship.
"How did the two of you manage to leave?" Jude asked. "From what you've described, it doesn't sound like Jim would have simply let you walk away."
Angela and Kiara exchanged glances before Angela spoke. "After Sandra died, things got… worse. Jim became morecontrolling, and Craig…" She trailed off, shaking her head slightly.
"We planned for months," Kiara continued when Angela faltered. "When Jim and Craig went on a three-day hunting trip, we packed what little we had and just… left."
"We had to walk," Angela added softly. "We don't have driver's licenses, and there is no public transportation around here. This was as far as we could get."
Jude nodded, mentally cataloging every detail. "So you found jobs and a place to live?"
"Angie got a job first,” Kiara said. “The bakery was willing to hire her after she baked a batch of cinnamon buns for them, proving she really knew what she was doing. Patty, the bakery owner, also let us rent the apartment over the bakery as part of Angie’s salary. I found a job working at the gas station, then I got a job here at the library a couple of months later.”
“Are you still living above the bakery?”
“No, we just moved a few weeks ago,” Angela said. “It wasn’t a good arrangement.”
“Why is that?” Jude asked, wanting to have all the information he could gather about their lives.
Duncan wanted to protect his family, so Jude knew that he needed to be able to give the man a well-rounded picture of the life his daughter had been leading.
Everything was telling him that Duncan had nothing to worry about. That Angela wasn’t out to harm him or his family.
“We didn’t realize until recently that the rent Patty was charging us was quite high compared to other places. Also, we didn’t like that she’d come into the apartment whenever she liked.”
“Without notice?”
“She never gave us any notice,” Angela said. “And there was never a good reason for her to be there.”
“So where are you living now?”
“We’ve rented a basement apartment from a woman Angie met at the bakery," Kiara explained. "She's elderly, and we help her with some things around the house in exchange for a small discount on the rent. Plus, it was furnished, which is what we needed.”
“Do you have a plan for your future?” Jude asked, curious how that might gel with what Duncan wanted.
“We do hope that we’ll be able to one day leave Briar Hollow,” Angela said.
“But it’s hard,” Kiara chimed in. “First and foremost, we need to get our licenses, which is a challenge since the closest DMV is beyond walking distance.”
“And no one would help you out?”
The women exchanged a look before Kiara said, “We haven’t really made super close connections in the town. Angie knows a few people from the church, but they’re all older. We just didn’t feel comfortable asking people to help us.”
“Most people view us as part of the crazy prepper homestead. They know that Jim especially is big into self-sustenance and keeping to himself. Also, some suspect that he is stockpiling weapons. They’ve made comments about that to us.”
“But they actually have no idea how much he and Craig have stockpiled,” Angela murmured. “They are preparing for the end of the world.”
“And how do you feel about that?” Jude asked, more curious than anything. But the fact that Jim and his son were armed made approaching them a bit more of a challenge.
