This time, she thought nothing. She only experienced the here and now.
Her voice was hoarse when she finally relented. Henry rubbed her back, still inside her, although he had gone soft.
Minute by minute, she was freed from her restraints. Monica fell to the bed and closed her legs once the spreader bar was gone. Happily, she fell back into Henry’s arms as he held her close and removed her blindfold. She didn’t bother to open her eyes.
“It’s weird.” That was the first thing Henry said after they held each other for a while, Monica’s cheek glued to his chest as she decided the best aftercare was soft touches and gentle caresses. “I blindfold you to enhance your experience, but I often feel like I should be the one blindfolded.”
She slightly lifted her head in inquiry.
“Because you’re so shockingly beautiful,” he explained. “I go blind when I look at you.”
He said it with the right amount of humility to sound genuine. Then again, Henry was not a man who merelysaidthings. He meant every word that came out of his mouth.
“I think everyone goes blind looking at you, Monica.” His fingers danced on top of her scalp before his whole hand fell to her arm. “That’s the only explanation I have for how some turn their faces away when you walk into a room.”
It was the kind of thing that made her think, even when she didn’t want to. Yet there she was, in bed with her husband,wondering what it would be like to have another baby.Don’t be silly.She was one and done. Monica was sterilized, even.
But she loved the idea of making her family even stronger. It was one of the easiest ways to exert the power this man saw so inherently within her.
Chapter 21
The Girl Within
Monica kept herself as busy as she could that next week. When she wasn’t traveling around the city for work or to port her daughter somewhere, she was taking care of more serious matters like her mother-in-law. And the IRS.
Both required dealing with people in authority that she would rather not see right now.
Abigail was required to talk to the police and the FBI. Monica had been holding it off for as long as she could for Abigail’s good, but due to her age, the investigators were afraid she would forget the details too quickly. So, one day after school, they headed straight to the FBI field office, where she sat in on her daughter retelling how her grandmother packed her off to France and then Thailand.
“Did she tell you that your parents knew where you were going?” asked the young female agent talking softly and taking notes.
Abigail nodded, her mother wrapped protectively around her. “She said that my mom was too busy to go with us, but that we would have a good time.”
They were offered juice and cookies to keep them comfortable, but even Abigail didn’t want it. She didn’t have much appetite at all as Monica took her out for frozen yogurt afterward. She even told Abigail she could get whatever toppings she wanted.
“I used to eat these all the time when I was your age.” Monica plucked a red and yellow gummy worm out of her daughter’s cup. She knew Abigail wouldn’t be able to finish it, so she was more than happy to help. “My mom would come home from work with a pack she picked up from the Circle K in our neighborhood. She let me haveso muchsugar. It stunted my growth.”
Abigail poked her spoon at the strawberry-flavored frozen yogurt covered in Oreo crumbs, gummy worms, and sprinkles. “Why don’t you talk about my other grandma much?”
Monica knew she had opened herself up to that one. “When I tell you stories about my mom bringing me home a snack before I had to go to bed…” Monica said, vaguely reminiscing about her childhood being raised by an emotionally distant mother, “It’s because I don’t have many. I didn’t see her a lot growing up. The only thing we had in common was that we looked a lot alike.” Henry had been shocked when he first met Monica’s mother, who had the gall to flirt with him before she left.Not shocked that she flirted. Shocked that he almost fell for it because she looked just like me, only with crow’s feet.Monica’s mother had been at the wedding and visited after Abigail was born, but beyond that, she only saw the family once every other year. Monica ensured her mother’s retirement but didn’t know what she did with her time. Or if she even spent the five grand her daughter sent her mother every month on anything practical. The woman enjoyed tropical vacations and hookupswith random men.At least she can do it in other places and not in the room next to mine.Monica and her therapist had been down this road before.“Am I the way I am because of my mother? Because I had no father in my life?”Monica didn’t find out who her bio-dad was until she was in high school, and only because she had been his next of kin when he died.
“I miss Grandma. When can I see her again?”
Monica knew her daughter meant Isabella. “I don’t know. She’s in big trouble with the law. Last I heard, she was stuck at home in Montana.” With a big device on her ankle, no less. “Maybe soon, honey.”
Other families with young children came into the sunshine-filled shop. They were at a popular location downtown, near the FBI field office, and Monica wasn’t used to staying so long in locations that blasted pop music and had such sticky tables. She had hoped this would cheer Abigail up. Instead, it led them down this strange path.
“Dad’s really mad at Grandma. So is Aunt Eva. I heard them yelling about it.”
That piqued Monica’s interest. “Hm? Yelling? About what, exactly?”
Abigail shoved a small bite in her mouth. Monica took another gummy worm. “Aunt Eva was crying. Dad told her to calm down. He sounded angry.”
“About your grandma?”
Abigail nodded. “She said that Grandma needed to go to prison before she hurt our family. Dad said it was never going to happen. She got really upset. She said something about something Grandma did when she was my age.”
“Where did you hear this? How?”
