“From what I’ve heard, they liked to switch up which piggy’s in the middle.”
“As in Evie…” My forehead wrinkles. “But that hurts. Bad.”
“Darling, being forced is very different from having someone you love carefully filling all your holes.”
A cringe involuntarily moves through me. “Can we leave bad memories buried? The best part is not remembering any of it. Still, it took so much therapy to get over.”
“I’m sorry.” His warm hand covers mine, and he gives it a squeeze. “You brought it up.”
“I did not.”
Jillian starts to squirm, and we both stop talking. He mouths “you did” to me, and I narrow my eyes.
Once it’s clear my daughter isn’t waking up, I sigh and shake my head. “To each his own,” I whisper.
“Speaking of, how’s your own?”
I put my face on my hand again. “He’s so good.”
“I’m sure he is.” I get a naughty wink for that.
“No, I mean… Well, yes, he is, but I mean in every way. He’s so good. He really is a hero.” The light through the windows is growing slowly brighter, and I push off the couch to start Jillian’s bottle.
“You’re really good,” Roland says, catching my hand. “You’re beautiful and talented and loyal to a fault. And when you make a promise, you damn well keep it.”
“This one is going to be better than all of us,” I say, leaning down to kiss my baby’s head, her chestnut hair soft against my lips.
She starts to move, and I know she’ll be awake soon.
Roland rubs his hand up and down her back. “You’ve done enough for her.”
It takes me a moment to realize he means Molly. “I made a promise.”
“And she’s taking advantage of it. With all that therapy, why didn’t she take part?”
“Confronting these men is her version of therapy.”
“You said she found Esterhaus in Canada. He’s the last one. So why the trip to Seattle?”
Standing in the kitchen doorway, I look down at my feet, turning the truth over in my mind before speaking it. “We’re going after Gavin.”
Anger flashes across his face. “No.”
“He harbored Guy. He protected the monsters. He used all of us so they could pocket hundreds of thousands of—”
“I said no.” His voice is stern. “Let sleeping dogs lie.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You can’t? You?” His dark brow lowers, and he leans forward. “I thought all this was because of your promise to Molly. Instead it’s about you?”
“He’s the last one Molly wants to go after.”
“But you’re clearly onboard.”
Tears sting in my eyes. “How could he give away a little girl like she was nothing?”
“Because to him, she was nothing.”