To love someone this much…was the most painful thing in the world. “I love you so much.” My breath caught in my throat, and the tears came again. Even as a child, I never cried. There were only a handful of times it had occurred, and it was all because of Claire. Sometimes the tears were bittersweet…when I dropped her off at kindergarten for the first time. One time she made me a drawing of the two of us for Father’s Day…and I just lost it. I lost it now.
“Don’t be sad, Daddy.” She pulled back to look at my face.
My hands cupped her little cheeks, seeing those freckles on her face, her blue eyes identical to mine, her messy blond hair. “I’m not, sweetheart. Just happy…to have you home.” I kissed her forehead and hugged her once again. She looked nothing like Beatrice, didn’t have a scar in sight, not a single bruise, and she didn’t seem emotionally disturbed either. Beatrice was an empty vessel…but my daughter came back exactly the same.
After a couple minutes, Claire pulled away. “I’m hungry.”
I smiled through my tears, having missed those words. I used to hear her say it all the time, first thing in the morning, right when she got home from school, even after dinner sometimes. “Then let’s make something.” I got to my feet and watched her run to the kitchen and open the fridge.
“Constance, you wanna cook with us?” Claire looked at the woman who now had a name, the woman who had the same moisture in her eyes that I did.
I turned to look at her, wondering why she was still there. “I’m sure Constance wants to head home too. Probably has a lot of people that she missed.”
Constance stared at me, her eyes slowly sinking to the floor.
I turned to Claire. “Come say goodbye.”
Claire closed the fridge then hugged Constance around the stomach.
Constance gave a strained smile before she kneeled and embraced Claire the way I had a moment ago. She clung to her hard, her eyes closed, enveloping her with invisible love that I could see with the naked eye. “You were right, baby. Your daddy did come for us.”
“I knew he would.” She pulled away. “He’s the best.”
“You were right about that too.”
“You want to come over tomorrow and get ice cream with us?” Claire asked.
Before Constance could answer, I intervened. “We’ll talk about it later, sweetheart.” I appreciated what this woman had done for my daughter, but that relationship was over now. I was a paranoid man, even more so now, and I didn’t want anyone having a relationship with my daughter, especially a stranger. I didn’t know this woman. Just because she’d helped my daughter didn’t mean she was a good person. I knew nothing about her except the things Claire had mentioned. “Now, pick out something for dinner, and I’ll walk Constance out.”
“Alright. See you later.” Claire did as I asked and turned back to the kitchen.
The second Claire turned away, Constance got to her feet, a wince on her face—like she’d been punched in the gut. She stared at the floor for a moment before she looked at me.
I entered the hallway, ducked into a bedroom and grabbed a wad of cash, and then met her in the foyer.
She looked out the window into the darkness, in her white clothes, her makeup making rivers on her face from the moisture that had spilled over a couple times.
“Thank you for everything you did for my daughter.” I extended my hand to shake hers.
She stared at it for a moment before she took it, her grip weak.
“Benton.”
She stared at our hands as they moved up and down, like she’d never had a handshake before. “You don’t remember me…” She dropped her hand and looked up at me again, her hand flattening against her stomach. “You came to the theatre asking about Claire and Beatrice.”
“I asked a lot of people a lot of questions.”
“After I saw you, Forneus started popping up everywhere, at my performances, at the apartment across the street from mine… I went to the police, but they were no use.”
No surprise there.
“I was actually on my way to find you…when they grabbed me.”
I didn’t know what to say, what she expected of me. “I’m sorry.”
She glanced out the window again.
“You’re home now. It’s over.”
She slowly turned back to me, her eyes sad. “It’ll never be over, at least not for me.”
I extended the cash to her. “Take this. As a thank you.”
She stared down at it but never grabbed it. “I…I don’t have anywhere to go.” Her eyes remained transfixed on the cash.
“Then this will get you back on your feet.” The wad remained pressed under my thumb, waiting for it to her take it and walk out the door.
Her eyes lifted again, and the fog that had remained on the surface of her gaze finally wafted away on an invisible breeze. “I know you don’t know me…and this is weird, but…I don’t want to leave.”