Silent Run

more calculating than fearful. But she’d been afraid in her dream, and despite the bravado she was putting on now, she felt a sense of fear. There was danger somewhere -- she just didn’t know where.
    â€œNothing to say?” Jake prodded. He took another step closer to her. His breath whispered against her cheek, drawing goose bumps across her arms. She could feel the power in his body standing so near hers, and the air sparked with tension between them.
    She cleared her throat and forced herself to look at him. “I told you I just want to find my daughter."
    Jake didn’t reply for a long, tense moment, his gaze deep and hard, his eyes searching hers for the truth. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t give in to the temptation. He would only think she was trying to hide something.
    Finally he gave a frustrated shake of his head. “I don’t know if you’re lying or not. I used to believe I was good at reading people, but you... you proved me wrong. I never suspected that you had so many secrets. I was completely taken in, fooled in every possible way."
    She was surprised he would admit to such a thing. He seemed like a proud, confident, arrogant man. Or was he playing his own game, trying to make himself look like a victim?
    â€œI imagined seeing you a million times in the last seven months,” he continued. “I thought about what I would say to you -- what you would say to me. I expected that you’d have a big story to tell me, some logical explanation for your departure. I never anticipated a sudden case of amnesia. It’s a good defense. You don’t have to answer any questions, because you don’t remember."
    The cutting anger in his voice drew her chin up. She couldn’t defend her actions before she’d woken up in the hospital, but she could stand up for her behavior in the past twelve hours. “I’m not faking the memory loss. I don’t recall anything before I woke up in this bed. You’re no more familiar to me than the deputy who was just here. I don’t know you. I don’t remember anything about our life together. You could be telling me a boatload of lies. I don’t trust you any more than you trust me."
    Jake picked up the photo of the two of them that still rested on the bed. “You need proof that we were together. Here it is."
    â€œThat woman’s hair is lighter."
    â€œYou had blond hair when I knew you.” His eyes narrowed. “Come on, Sarah; you can’t deny this woman is you."
    She couldn’t deny it. Despite the different hair color, and the cuts and bruises she now wore, the face was the same one she’d seen in the mirror. “Even if it is me, I don’t remember having the picture taken. I don’t remember being with you at all."
    He shook his head in anger and frustration. “Fine, you don’t remember. So I’ll tell you the way it was. We had an intense, passionate relationship. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. We were together for two years, and I thought I knew you inside and out. Then I came home one day to an apartment I didn’t recognize, a home stripped bare of everything and everyone. At first I thought something terrible must have happened, a stranger had come into our home and hurt you or kidnapped you and Caitlyn. But that didn’t jive with the way you’d left the house so neat and tidy and utterly empty. I haunted the police station for weeks. I hung up posters all over the city. I pleaded on television for someone to come forward and tell me where you were."
    â€œI don’t know what to say.” She felt damnation in each horrible word he uttered.
    â€œThen just listen. Our friends, my coworkers, even one of the cops, suggested you might have had postpartum depression. No one came right out and said it, but I knew they were wondering if you’d harmed yourself and Caitlyn, too. But I kept telling them that you’d never hurt our child. You couldn’t do such a thing."
    â€œI don’t believe that I did,” she said quickly. “Officer Manning told me he found fresh milk in a bottle in the backseat of my car. Caitlyn has to be okay. She’s just somewhere I can’t remember."
    â€œI hope to God that’s true, Sarah."
    â€œIt has to be true,” she said, hearing desperation in her own voice.
    â€œThen maybe you left me for another reason. I don’t care anymore what that