Page 80 of The Complete Truth Duet
“Where are the girls?” I whispered to Penn, my hands trembling as I watched Dante make it to his car.
Time stopped and the ground opened, releasing the demons from hell in the five seconds it took for him to reply.
“I don’t know.”
He might not have known, but suddenly, it was all too clear that Dante did.
“River!” I screamed.
Penn
Drew and I took off at a dead sprint toward the stairs, Cora’s terror-filled cry fueling my every step. I led the way, my feet pounding on the concrete as I took the stairs three at a time. Drew was right behind me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Dante pulling out of the parking lot as I rounded the last curve to the second floor.
That son of a bitch.
That fucking fucking son of a bitch.
If he’d touched those girls…
I’d wanted to kill him for breathing the same air as Cora. Then hearing her say she belonged to him? Dante was lucky he’d walked away after that.
But if he’d done anything to River or Savannah, he’d never find himself that lucky again.
When I reached the top, I went straight for the door to Cora’s apartment. My shoulder slammed into the wood, though the door refused to open. I shook the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“River! Savannah!” I yelled, pounding my fist against the wood.
“Move,” Cora choked out as she finally made it up to us, her keys already in her hand. She twisted both locks open and carefully shoved the door open.
The chain didn’t catch.
It had been locked from the outside.
Dante was one step closer to his coffin.
“River!” she screamed.
A deep thudding sound came from down the hall. After passing by the girls’ empty room, I threw Cora’s bedroom door open—only to screech to a halt when I saw River and Savannah on the other side.
It should have been a relief, but neither of them was okay.
River was wearing a makeshift gag, tears streaming down her frightened face. Her hands were bound by an electrical cord, which was anchored to the very same bedframe I’d bought Cora. The bed had been pulled clear across the room, and River was on her knees, next to a blue, lifeless version of Savannah. White foam trickled from her mouth while a syringe lay haphazardly discarded on the floor at her feet.
“No!” Cora screamed.
I flew straight to Savannah first, dropping to my knees beside her. My heart was in my throat as I prayed with everything I had for the first time since I’d sat on that phone with Lisa. No one had helped me then. I didn’t know if there was a God anymore, but if there was, I needed him to actually show up this time.
“She has a pulse,” I declared, rolling her to her side.
Drew jumped into action, shoving a finger between her lips, sweeping vomit from her mouth.
“Oh, thank you,” Cora breathed. “Is she breathing?” she asked, her hands frenzied as she fought with the gag in River’s mouth.
“Yeah,” I said with hope. But, while Savannah’s breaths were visible at her chest, they were shallow, each one taunting me as if it could be her last.
And then a rusty knife hit my gut when I lifted her lids. Her hollow, green stare was already cloudy.
Cora finally got the gag off River.
And then the world stopped.
Everything I’d spent four years searching for suddenly fell into my lap, but in that moment, it didn’t seem important anymore. Not with innocent kids dying. Women being taken advantage of, manipulated, abused. Not with people like Dante and Marcos Guerrero walking the street.
It was that exact moment that my purpose shifted, but surprisingly enough, my goal remained the same.
“Mom!” River screamed, diving into Cora’s arms with her upper body, her hands still tethered to the bed.
I saw Drew’s body jerk, so I shot my head up. Shock and confusion registered on his face as he stared with narrowed eyes at Cora embracing…
Her daughter?
“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay. Everything’s going to be okay,” she chanted.
“He made her take it,” River cried as Drew used a pocketknife to cut her free. “She told him no. But he made her. He said he would take her away. Back to his place, where she belonged.”
Cora palmed River’s tear-stained face. “Did he give you anything?”
“No.”
“Pills, food, drink, anything? River, think!”
“No! He didn’t touch me. He just tied me up so I couldn’t get you. Oh God, Mom. Is she going to be okay?”
“Yes,” Cora answered definitively. “She’s gonna be fine. Everything is going to be fine. She just needs to sleep it off.” With tears in her blue eyes, she turned to me. “Right, Penn?”
I wanted to say yes. But I couldn’t lie to her. Not about this.
“No, baby. She needs to go to a hospital.”
