Vanished (The Saved Series, A Military Romance) Read Online Free PDF

week here, sleeping on a cot in the living room. She’d been grateful, but she had also heard the commotion next door from Mary-Margaret’s three children, twelve-year-old Taylor, ten-year-old Janey, and nine-year-old Steven, whining and whispering about why Mom had to stay here. Abby heard it, and she felt their resentment. Everyone’s nerves were on edge because of her. They had to hate her, and she couldn’t take it anymore.
    “Mary-Margaret , you have to go home to your kids, to your husband. You need to take care of them.”
    “Abby…” she started. She was distracted by Rachel trying to slip from her booster chair, so Abby reached around Rachel’s waist, lifted her down, and touched Mary-Margaret’s arm.
    “Go home . You can still take me to the doctor. I’m right next door. If I need something, I promise I’ll call you,” she said. The fact was that she needed space, time to think, quiet. She needed to get rid of this feeling of being watched. Maybe she’d begin to like Mary-Margaret again, but right now the woman was making her feel inept and nervous, as if she needed her approval for anything she did. Her voice was gone, stripped, and this woman could do anything, while Abby was powerless. She shut her eyes for a second, tamping down the sense of a large hand wrapped around her throat, squeezing, strangling out her very breath. It terrified her, this feeling of being owned, without a voice, a prisoner. It took away her choice, her power, and her sense of self. She couldn’t go back to that, not ever again.
    Rachel raced into the living room and rustled in her toy box , pulling a string on a wind-up toy that started singing one of the Disney songs. It brought Abby back, and she turned away, moving her feet. It was the only way to get her head, her brain, going. She breathed in deeply, smelling the powerful pine, so strong. So Mary-Margaret had cleaned her house, too.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, go,” Abby replied. She forced a smile to her lips and saw relief or something, maybe fatigue, in Mary-Margaret’s face.
    “Okay , I’ll be back in an hour, and then I’ll take you to the doctor.”
    After the door closed , Abby took in her neat and tidy kitchen. It was spotless, organized, and she noticed things had moved. The coffeemaker was beside the stove. In front of it was a paper towel with clean cups set on it. The toaster was gone, and the pile of papers she had stuffed in the corner of the counter—bills, mail—was also gone. She firmed her lips and opened the drawers, finding them organized and neat. She found the papers in another drawer, and she dragged them out and dumped them back on the counter, setting her hand on top of them and making a messy pile. She stared at the door and wanted to race over and bolt it so the guard dog who had left could never come back in again. It was that feeling of being trapped, watched, someone always checking on her, that was making her tense. Someone going through her things, moving what was hers, what she had set up and organized, she didn’t like it one bit.
    E ven though she tried to tell herself she’d be fine now, with Mary-Margaret gone, she couldn’t make herself believe it, because she felt as if she were drowning, everything slamming into her from every direction. She had seen herself in Mary-Margaret’s eyes, and she wasn’t good enough. She was incapable, a terrible mother. She choked and heard Rachel pull the string on her toy again, so she took a breath and forced every dark thought trying to creep into her head away. She made a plan. She would take Rachel to the park. Mary-Margaret and Joe would be next door, and she would reassure them she was okay. She knew Eric was worried, and she would convince him, too.
    He’d S kyped again just the night before. She knew he was hearing one side: their side. She felt ganged up on, and even when she tried telling him she was okay, she could see the worry he had, his disbelief, as if he could no