Page 120 of Gone Tonight
I unsheathe my knife as Catherine takes her phone out of her pocket and dials a number. I crouch lower, like a sprinter getting into a starting line stance. I tighten my grip on the handle of my knife.
But there’s no ringing sound from across the parking lot. My phone must be on vibrate or the noise is too muffled from within my purse for us to hear it.
I desperately want to answer Catherine’s call, but I’d have to move too quickly to get there in time, which would almost certainly attract James’s attention.
Then James says something that makes my stomach plummet.
“Mom isn’t picking up?”
He knows Catherine is my daughter. She must be far more valuable to him as a pawn now.
What else has he discovered?
I can’t risk what might happen to Catherine next.
I hold my knife down, pressing it against the outside of my right thigh in an effort to conceal it, as I step out of the shadows.
“James, I’m here.”
James half turns to look at me but doesn’t otherwise react. If I’ve shocked him by suddenly appearing, he doesn’t reveal it.
Catherine is staring at me with a blank expression. I can feel the waves of fear rolling off her.
Anger bubbles deep inside me. It’s the primal rage of a woman whose child is being threatened.
“Let her go, James.”
“Let her go?” he echoes. His voice is mocking. “When we’re finally having a family reunion?”
Shock whips through me. He knows everything.
“I waited for you, Ava.”
I know he means not just on that long-ago night when he was arrested, but for the past twenty-four years.
“She has nothing to do with this,” I tell James. “She had no idea you were her father until last night.”
James blinks, the only sign I’ve caught him off guard. “Is that true?”
Catherine looks toward me, unsure of what to do.
“Tell him the truth, Catherine,” I urge.
“She told me that my—that her boyfriend got her pregnant and denied I was his,” Catherine says.
“Stop looking at her!” James commands Catherine. He moves slightly away so he can face her. Now I can clearly see the gleaming black gun he has trained on her.
Catherine obeys, shifting her eyes to James.
“Why did you reach out to me on Facebook?” he asks.
The truth, Catherine,I think. For her to have a chance of surviving this, James must blame me and me alone. I built up lies like a wall of bricks to protect her from James, but the only way to keep her safe now is to smash them down.
“I was trying to learn more about my mom.… She never talked about her past. I didn’t know where she grew up or what her real name was or—or anything, really.”
“So she kept us apart all these years. Did you ever miss having a father?”
Catherine is torn—I can see it. She doesn’t want to spark James’s anger toward me.
