“Just wanted to inform you that I had a phone call with the head agent on-site in Wyoming. He relayed that a number of the sister wives escaped with several babies.”
Crawford shifted in his seat.
“We will be on the lookout,” I said.
“They’re probably going to join other compounds,” the FBI agent warned. “We have our cult department on alert, though there isn’t much we can legally do, as the mothers are allowed to take their children where they wish.”
He turned to a new page in his notebook. “Do you have an idea of how many girls there were?”
“I’m not sure, maybe eight to ten?” I guessed. “There were some older ones, teenagers or young adults, but the younger kids that have come to Harrogate said they disappeared a long time ago.”
“Hm,” Agent Donnelly said. “Don’t lose hope. They may turn up. The fact that your father is in jail may give them the confidence needed to come out of the shadows.”
But I had lost hope.
“What do you want for dinner?” Remy asked me when I walked back into the dining room after returning home from the meeting.
“I’m not hungry,” I replied.
“You need to eat,” Davy insisted. “Can we have pizza?”
“Sure,” I said, going outside to sit on the terrace.
Spring was coming. The stones were warm from the sun. Several of my little brothers were play fighting with Crawford, who was teaching them tactical combat moves.
Isaac slunk up the steps and sat beside me. I put my arm around his shoulder, pulling him close to me.
“Minnie said you dumped Meg. Because of Dad.”
“Did you see her?” I asked him.
“Minnie said Meg hadn’t been at the café. But it was packed. I just stayed to help her wash dishes and stuff and clear some of the crowd out.”
“That was nice of you.”
“You can’t let Dad ruin anything else,” he said, looking at me. “He’s ruined everyone’s lives. You can’t let him take Meg too.”
“It’s complicated,” I began, looking out over the backyard.
“It’s not that complicated,” he shot back. “You always say that, but it’s not. I love Minnie. So I spend time with her and help her out. It’s not that difficult.” He jumped up then stormed into the house.
“You couldn’t pay me to be sixteen again,” Garrett said from above me.
“Do you also have an acerbic comment to make?” I asked him.
“Hardly,” he replied then added, “but maybe Isaac isn’t completely an idiot.”
However, I couldn’t forgive Meg. As much as I wanted to, as much as I loved her, I had to draw hard lines. My family came first. Always. Even at the expense of my own happiness. I refused to be like my parents, both my mother and Leif, who put their own happiness over that of their kids, and we all had suffered from it. I would not become them.
But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
79
Meghan
Ihardly finished any work for the rest of the day.
“What’s the point?” I said to the wall in my office. “The election is in two days. Hunter will win. This can all be his problem.” I slumped over my computer, resting my head in my hands. What was I going to do without Hunter?
