This situation couldn’t continue on like this for infinity.
God, please let themedication work. Please save Elise.
Braden couldn’t be sure if this experimental drug was the answer, God’s answer, or if he’d taken things into his own hands and allowed himself to be manipulated by a master.
“Can I talk to her? Is she awake?”
“Sure. That’s why I called, actually,” Lauren said. “But first I wanted to make sure you were in a good place to talk.”
He was never in a good place to talk anymore. Then again, he would always make time for Lauren and Elise.
“Uncle Braden.” Her sweet voice came through the cell. He squeezed his eyes shut, listening to her, hoping to remember every part of how her voice sounded in case she didn’t make it. Hoping to hear any pain she was suffering but too afraid to tell anyone.
“Hi, sweetie.”
“I miss you. When are you coming back? When can you come and see me?”
Braden worked to keep the pain from his voice, enduring the acid rising in his gut.
“I miss you too, honey,” he said. “You know I would be there right now, today, and never leave, if I could, right?”
“I know.”
“Just remember that I love you. I’ll come visit as soon as I can.”I’ll come live close, again, as soon as I can.
Elise continued talking, sharing with him about a man who made her laugh by making balloon animals when she was at the hospital getting her infusion. Then Elise grew tired, and Lauren said goodbye.
How had it come to this? The agony was almost unbearable. He hated Octavia for this. And at the same time, he couldn’t be more grateful that she had made this possible and given Elise a second chance at life. Still, everything about this situation felt completely wrong. But maybe it was due to the simple fact that he lived in a fallen world. Nothing was as it should be.
He blew out a breath and tried to refocus on his current situation. The sooner he completed his task here, the sooner he could get back to the people who mattered most.
Lauren and Elise.
And what about Cressida? She hadn’t been far from his thoughts even while he talked to his niece. Braden didn’t like leaving her alone in the cabin, but Remi assured him she would make sure she had a place to stay at the lodge. In the end, it was Cressida’s choice.
Dreading the next call, he stared at his cell.
Braden contacted Octavia and, as expected, got her voicemail. He didn’t leave a message because she’d asked him not to. She would recognize the number and return the call. Next, he returned Trent’s call and got his voicemail. He grabbed a quick lunch at the sandwich shop next door, then returned to the reports app, which allowed him to review the information they had and connect dots if possible.
He needed to upload the recorded statement into the database and include a written transcript. He wanted to listen to it again. Listen, in case he missed some nuance in her tone or answer. Braden turned on the recording and got up and paced as it played. He struggled to listen to the pain in her voice.
This wasn’t what he signed up for, and he was furious at Octavia. The woman managed to offer favors and pull strings in the most unexpected places. In Braden’s opinion, she was working overtime to keep her daughter clueless or at a distance.
Why not give Cressida a call and talk out their differences? Why send Braden into this situation, while also leaving him in the dark? Leaving him clueless was one thing—and he would get those answers—but her daughter was another matter.
Octavia had done something to alienate her daughter, and she had her reasons. Braden couldn’t fathom any reason would be worth losing your daughter. He would go to the end of the earth for his family—all he had left were his sister and niece, and he had done everything he could for his niece. And now here he was.
People had a way of justifying their position. Like right now, he justified his own position—owing Octavia and following through with her demands. And he could see no end in sight.
After a few hours working on the reports and research, he closed his laptop.
Trent finally called Braden back. “We got no one on the CCTV. No man going in or out.”
“Okay, then letmesee the footage. Her attacker could have had an accomplice. Someone else could have been working with him, stealing her laptop while someone else was trying to drown her and leave her for dead.”
“You might want to ask her what she has on her computer or in that bag of hers that someone wants. What’s she involved in to bring this on?”
Trent and his detective instincts. “She’s thevictim, Trent. Don’t twist it around to sound like she’s guilty of a crime. Anything else?”
