Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
He handed her one of the water bottles, and they both uncapped theirs and took a drink. He set his on the nightstand and then pulled on the boxer shorts that were lying on the floor. Clothing would help keep his thoughts focused.
“How?” she asked. “My father . . . Dow . . . all of it. How did it happen?”
He got back into bed, propping his own pillows up against the headboard and turning toward her, glad she was on the same track as him. Grateful she was willing to accept the probability that her father had been involved in their abduction, no matter how much it had to be killing her.
“I’ve been trying to work it out,” he said. “I’ve been going over some possibilities while you slept, and there’s something missing.”
“What?”
“Well. My dad did ruin your father’s life. Your father hated him, he blamed him. But that had been true for many years. What set him off? What happened to make him do something so drastic?”
“So evil,” Noelle murmured, the trace of grief floating over her features. He wouldn’t try to placate her and tell her it was not. They’d both lived it, and honesty was vital here if they were going to get to the heart of the truth.
Yes, then, evil. What had made her father do something so incredibly evil?
“I didn’t see my dad a lot in the week before I was taken,” she said. “But he did seem off. I worried that he was sinking back into depression. But he seemed antsy too. I don’t know. My dad went through mood swings, and he had for years. He’d seen a therapist for a while, and it’d seemed to help.” She paused, looking troubled. “I wish I would have suggested he make an appointment, but . . . well, the way he was acting wasn’t abnormal, so mostly I hoped it would pass as it had before and just tried to stay busy. I was busy. But . . . yes, to . . . set you up to be tortured, he had to have come upon something new. It broke him. It bent his mind, and it made him do something appalling.”
Evan agreed that it had to be something new. The man had lived with his wife’s death, the knowledge of her betrayal, and the outcome of the trial that followed for many years. From what Evan understood, he’d just been getting his life back on track . . . was working regularly and managing his debt. His daughter was thriving in school. She hadn’t gone missing yet. So what happened? And if Evan himself had been the target, how and why had someone determined that Noelle be caged too? And with him? He knew they were missing something.
Noelle was chewing at the inside of her cheek. “What about that photo of the weird website from what could be your home theater room?” she asked.
He didn’t have the photo in front of him, but he conjured it then. It had reminded him of the camel-colored leather, but . . . it was the smallest corner. As evidence, it was pretty shaky. But if it was their home theater, and if the website had been part of what they’d experienced, and if it was his father watching it when the photo had been taken, then maybe that’s what led her father to become aware of the whole thing. Those were a lot of maybes and too many ifs. “You think my dad might have been viewing that site and your dad found out?” Evan asked.
“Well, maybe. But first . . . if it was your home in that photo, where did it come from? And how did my dad know your father was involved in anything like that?” She paused briefly. “Could Dow have sneaked in and taken it?”
“Based on what? Also, security’s pretty tight at the Sinclair manor.” It was a good question, though. “Dow did have the photo, so if he didn’t take it, then your father must have found it and given it to him,” Evan said.
“And then he used the information from the computer to hack into some dark internet site.”
They were both quiet as they digested that. “Okay, so where did my dad get it?”
“Could your mother have taken it?”
She blinked.
“There was a photo on your mother’s camera. She had it in her purse that night, and the police took it. The photo came out in court that proved your mother’s affair with my father.”
She let out a breath, briefly closing her eyes. “You think that could be a photo she took on another occasion? From what I know, there was only one photo. But it spoke volumes, apparently.”
Yes. From what he’d heard whispered around his house by the staff, it was a photo of his father’s private parts. Parts that had been proved to be his by a mole or some other identifiable attribute. It was all so humiliating and sleazy. No wonder Noelle’s father had nearly lost his mind.