“Janie’s not your sister, Timmy.”
Riley’s head snapped up, all thoughts of death shot away.
Her father was coming up the driveway, was just over Hempstead’s left shoulder. His eyes crested over Riley, heavy with apology, but his gaze set on Tim.
Riley could feel Tim stiffen.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry, Timmy, we both are. We shouldn’t have left you.”
“See?” Timmy was speaking to her now, shaking her with every word. “I was right. They left me. They’re going to leave you too!”
Riley looked to her father, who had stepped in front of Hempstead and was almost close enough to touch. She could see her mother behind him. She shook off Gail’s grip, and Riley saw that Gail held a gun, pointed at the ground. Behind her were three squad cars with officers taking aim.
“You need to let her go, Timmy,” her mother pleaded. “You know that, don’t you? Please let her go.”
“She wants to be with me. We’re home. This is our home. I told Janie the truth about you two. I told her how I went to sleep and when I woke up, you stole her and you just disappeared. You left me like I was nothing.”
“You had a family, Tim.”
“No!” Tears were streaming down his face. “You were my family!”
Her father raked a hand through his hair. “We spent a lot of time together, Timmy, and we loved you. But you were free when Alistair was arrested. They made arrangements for you to go home and live with your parents again.”
“We didn’t want to take you away from them.”
“No.”
Riley’s mother pushed her way to the front. “We loved you, Timmy—we still do. But you had a family to go back to and we had to leave. We couldn’t take you from them, especially after Alistair already had. We didn’t have time to say good-bye. But we knew you’d be back with your parents soon.”
“My parents didn’t want me back. They wouldn’t take me back. They sold me to Alistair. They knew what he was doing. You were going to save me.” He was heaving now, tears and snot dribbling over his lips. “You promised you would save me!”
Riley could see her father visibly pale. “We didn’t know, Timmy. We didn’t know.”
“They took me to live with strangers! You left me and you took away Alistair and I had nobody. And you still had her!” His words were dripping with spite. “You took her and not me!”
He shook Riley hard, and she could feel the blade saw against her skin a little more. Her emotions were crashing all over her. Pain, relief, anger. Her parents really did know Tim. They really did leave him behind, and now he was here, holding a knife to her neck in front of a house that she didn’t even remember.
“It wasn’t like that, Timmy, honestly.”
“Stop it! Stop it! You’re lying. You’re lying and Jane knows it. She hates you! She hates you like I do. Tell them, Jane. Tell them!”
He tightened the blade against her skin, and Riley could feel the fibers beginning to split. “Tell them,” he commanded.
“I don’t want to.”
“Tell them!”
Riley looked at her mother then her father, the tears rolling down her face, flopping from her chin. “I hate you,” she whispered.
He shook her so the blade scraped against her skin. “Say it so they can hear it. So they can hear it and they’ll leave us alone.”
Riley tried to look at the ground, but all she could see was Tim’s filthy hand, gripping the blade that was pinching at her neck.
“I hate you,” she said louder. “I hate you.” She thought of Shelby, of her own terror, of all that had happened. Her blood was liquid fire. “I HATE YOU!” Riley grabbed the shard of glass out of her pocket, not caring when it sliced into her flesh. “I hate you,” she screamed, sinking the glass into Tim’s thigh.
He howled, his hands scrambling to get a grip on the glass, and Riley ran.
She was shivering when she reached her parents. Her teeth were chattering, and all the pain from her injuries crashed together at once as Gail and the police pushed ahead of them, advancing on Tim.
“I don’t hate you,” Riley was crying. “I don’t. Please don’t leave me behind.”
NINETEEN
Riley picked at the tape spread across the back of her hand.
“He was just a kid—nine, ten. According to Alistair, Timmy was his grandnephew. He was the youngest by far, and occasionally, he would come home with Mom and me. We were like a little family in some respects, but we always knew—or thought—that he had a family back in Ireland. And Alistair…”
Mrs. Spencer piped in. “When the deputy marshal came for us, we tried to take Timmy, but we had no legal grounds to. We had to go into hiding and he was someone else’s kid. It broke our hearts, but it was the right thing to do. The government assured us he was out of Alistair’s reach and would be on his way back to his family.”