“What about Daddy?” Bryce wanted to know.
“Your father is going to meet us,” Natalie said. “There’s been a change in plans and we’re going on a surprise trip. It’s going to be fun, you’ll see.”
Natalie’s stomach tightened like a precursor to a bad cramp. She hated lying to her children, but the truth? Well, that was out of the question. For now.
“I don’t want to go on a surprise trip,” Addie said woefully, her expressive brown eyes brimming. “I want to stay in New York. This hotel is awesome.”
“We’re coming back,” Natalie said, feeling that cramp again, only this time even tighter. “It’ll be at the end of our trip, not the beginning. Okay, loves? But we have to go right now. We have to hurry.”
“But Daddy,” Bryce cried. “He’s bringing the pizza. I’m hungry.”
Natalie gave Bryce a Z Bar, one she knew he’d eat that she had at the ready. She needed everything to work in her favor.
“I’ll get you something else to eat on our way out of town. Okay, cutie?” Natalie said, kneeling before Bryce, rubbing the top of his head, her palm brushing the silken fair hair with great tenderness.
Bryce’s bottom lip jutted out like a duck’s bill as his whole mouth began to quaver.
Tears were coming.
“Grab your Teddy. I’ll put on the TV,” Natalie said, coaxing him onto the bed.
It took a few seconds, a minute at most, before she found a channel that would appeal to her son, one playing SpongeBob SquarePants. She never let him watch SpongeBob at home, it was a bit too fast-paced and a little mouthy for her standards, so this felt like an extra treat. Bryce quickly settled.
Still, even that little delay struck her as too much. If Michael returned from the restaurant sooner than expected, it would be trouble. Her whole plan could come undone. But worse … he’d have questions for her. She checked her phone. The timer was running. Then she checked her Uber app. The driver would be arriving in minutes. She had created a new Uber account using a new credit card she’d covertly acquired, one she hoped Michael didn’t know anything about. She wasn’t too worried about him tracking the Uber ride—she’d planned for that. But she couldn’t allow him to be on her trail for long. From her research on how to disappear, she’d concluded money was the bread crumb easiest to follow.
Perhaps Michael, the police, or a private investigator would find her new credit card and track her that way. She had to use her real name and Social Security number to apply. Eventually though, that trail would go cold because she had every intention to live under the radar, so to speak, as soon as it was feasible. It wasn’t a forever plan, but she’d be underground long enough to deal with the threat, to deal with Michael.
The movies made it seem easy. Get a fake ID from some nefarious type, new Social Security number, and then step right into your new life. Voilà! The reality, Natalie had found out, was something quite different. Despite all her searching, a few attempted forays into the dark web, she’d arrived at the jarring conclusion that disappearing was hardly a snap. She felt certain her new credit card wasn’t the only wide-open hole in her plan that Michael could use to track her down.
Hunt her down was more like it.
Natalie put her toiletry case away last, leaving Michael’s on the counter. Waves of sadness washed over her, along with feelings of guilt that she managed to tamp down with nothing more than willpower.
When all was packed and ready, she held open the room door using her suitcase.
“Let’s go, children,” she said, taking a clipped tone. “Time to leave.”
Addie looked bewildered, but she came nonetheless. This was Mom after all, the person Addie trusted most in the world. Not that she’d ever confess to it, but there was an unspoken understanding with both children that Mom, more than Dad, had the answers.
Father knows best, my ass. Michael’s show would be: Father Knew More Than He Was Telling.
As she expected, Bryce didn’t budge when called, so Natalie took the drastic measure of shutting off the TV without warning. That was a mistake. Bryce howled at the black screen.
“I was watching,” he whined.
“Not now,” Natalie replied tersely, pulling him off the bed by his delicate wrist.
“I’m hungry,” he said, sniffling.
“I have bars in my bag. You can have another when we’re in the car.”
“I don’t want a bar,” said Bryce, tears filling his eyes, poor thing. “I want pizza. I want Daddy.”
He sank back down onto the bed, arms folded across his chest in a brave act of defiance.
“Daddy will meet us soon. I told you. This is an adventure.”
Bryce hurled Teddy angrily at Natalie’s head. If it weren’t for her quick reflexes, a remnant of her school years as a three-sport varsity athlete, the projectile would have struck her square in the face. Instead, poor Teddy hit the wall behind her. Natalie retrieved the bear from the floor and set him on top of the luggage. In normal times she’d have issued a stern rebuke for her son’s outburst, but these were hardly normal times.
“Let’s go,” she said, adopting an even more commanding voice.
“When will Daddy meet us?” Addie asked as she marched out into the hall, her feet stomping in a huff.
“Soon,” said Natalie.
Maybe that was all Bryce needed to hear. One word. “Soon.” He was up off the bed, sprinting out the door.
“First one to the elevator gets to push the button,” he shouted as he raced past his sister down the hall.
Addie took off after him.
What if they got into the elevator without her? Natalie thought with sudden alarm. She rushed to the door, grabbed her suitcase, and took off after the children, who were no longer in her sight.
It wasn’t until they were driving away from the hotel that Bryce asked for his bear. A sick, sinking feeling wormed into Natalie’s gut. She remembered placing Teddy on the luggage she’d used to prop the door open, but had no memory of seeing him at any point thereafter. Was he in the trunk? He had to be. She strained to recall, trying to picture Teddy riding her luggage down the elevator and out into the carport, but it wasn’t a clear memory; it wasn’t a memory at all.
Her eyes burned with fatigue as her thoughts churned through a series of reassuring scenarios, each of which failed to placate her deepening worry.
It’s your faulty sleep-deprived memory is all, Natalie assured herself. Teddy is in the trunk. The driver put him there. It’ll be all right. He’s in there.
They arrived at Penn Station after a brief car ride. Bryce wasn’t panicking. He was curious now.
“Where are we meeting Daddy? When?”