“I’ve tried everything with her,” Kalen admitted as he switched his focus onto Missy. “I brought her flowers. I read to her. I even played music, the kind my father used to play for my mother. But she won't talk to me. She barely eats. I think…I think she needs to join the others.”
“Can your mother help?” Hadley asked, hoping to garner information in a different way. “You said Sandy was your mother. Maybe she can?—”
“My mom is gone,” Kalen whispered, his lower lip trembling. “She got sick, and there was nothing we could do to save her.She’s not buried with the others, though. Mom was special. Beautiful. Gentle.”
Sandy Richardson had been kept alive, had given birth to Kalen, and raised her son in captivity until her death. The horror of it all was beyond comprehension.
Hadley began to understand that if the women didn’t succumb to their fate, Emanuel would dispose of them, as if they were merely the wrong size shirt. She had trouble reconciling the cordial man to a mentally disturbed individual who thought he could force someone to love him, to take care of him, and to bear his child.
“Kalen, I’m going to be honest with you right now,” Hadley said gently, meeting his gaze steadily once he stopped focusing on Missy. “The sheriff is waiting for me by the dirt road the Hobbs use for their farm equipment. If I don’t report back soon, he and his deputies will be all over this place.”
Kalen's breathing instantly became erratic, his pupils dilated with fear, and panic was about to take hold. She once again raised her hands, urging him to hear her out. She couldn’t have her life snuffed out in this godforsaken cabin in the woods.
“We have some time, though. Time to sort through our thoughts and think rationally. I’m sure your father told you how important it was not to react without considering all your options,” Hadley pressed, hoping the mention of his father would give her additional time to figure a way out. “Was your dad showing you his ways? Is that why you brought Missy here?”
Hadley was very careful not to mention kidnapping or abduction. If Kalen believed she understood his motivation, then maybe there was still a part of him that understood the difference between right and wrong.
“Showing me his…” Kalen let his voice trail off. He was clearly confused by her question. He then switched the weapon into his other hand, and she assumed it was due to the strain ofholding his arm up for so long. “Dad was gone long before his funeral. He didn’t have time to show me anything.”
“What do you mean?” Hadley cautiously asked before divulging some personal details of her own life. She desperately needed to form some type of bond with him. “I know how hard it is to lose your parents. I lost both of mine, too.”
“Dad had a stroke last year.” Kalen used his free hand to wipe away the thick mucus that had slid from his nose. “Mr. Hobbs was poking around the cabin. He must have seen my father restocking the wood. Mr. Hobbs was too close to the window and spotted the chains, and he threatened to go to the police.”
Hadley did her best not to react to Kalen’s admission.
“Those chains were only to keep Mom safe. I tried to tell Mr. Hobbs that, but my dad kept asking me to leave, saying that he would explain it all away.”
“But that didn’t happen, did it?” Hadley asked, keeping her voice low as she thought of a way to access her phone. Since it was in the front pocket of her blazer, she couldn’t retrieve it without Kalen’s knowledge. “Your father staged Thomas's farming accident, didn’t he?”
Kalen nodded, a flicker of pride returning.
“Dad always took care of his family. Mom. Me. Our land. We couldn’t allow Thomas to take it all away. But then…something happened. The strain was too much.”
“Strain?”
“The doctors said that my dad had a stroke. His left side was completely paralyzed.” Kalen swiped away a tear. “I had no one. And I…”
“And you had to take care of everything alone.” Hadley placed a hand over her heart, as if she commiserated with him. “Your father, the farm, the house. And you wanted someone to share that with you like your father did, right?”
“You get it,” Kalen said while nodding vigorously. “Yes. And I always thought that Missy was beautiful. She was always kind to me.”
“Did you set a homemade trap like your father?” Hadley startled when Kalen straightened his arm at the question, aiming the weapon directly at her face. She managed to mask her fear while attempting to gain some of the footing she’d just lost. “I was just asking a question, Kalen. I know your father used humane traps in his pursuit of someone to love him. I wasn’t judging.”
“Missy wouldn’t walk toward it, even though I kept calling out to her. I ended up having to chase her.” An odd expression crossed Kalen’s face as if he’d just come to a realization. “Do you think that’s why she won’t love me?”
Hadley had come to some conclusions herself.
Emanuel Telfort had been the man in the trench coat Sam had seen in the woods that night—not theThreshing Man.Mason had been innocent all along.
An idea came to her out of desperation.
“Kalen, do you think that maybe I was sent here for a reason?” Hadley inquired softly as she gauged the distance between them. When he’d first ushered her inside, she’d made sure to put as much space between them as she could. Now, she needed that space to diminish. “Or believe in fate?”
The unexpected inquiries caused Kalen to blink, confusion taking hold. The gun lowered a fraction of an inch, and she instinctively took a half step forward.
“What are you talking about?” His voice cracked with uncertainty.
“I testified against my brother,” Hadley continued, subtly shifting her right leg forward. “I told the court that Mason confessed to killing Emily Esten. My testimony put him in prisonfor twenty years. My parents, my brother…all gone. I’m all alone.”
