Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Your daughter?”
The man dragged out his words, like he was enjoying watching Daddy get scared, then he said: “Hard to say where she is right now. We tried calling you about the money, but you wouldn’t pick up. Got my guys pretty ticked off, you know? When we’re angry and got nowhere to put it, well… we gotta take it out
somewhere. Tsk tsk.”
Daddy suddenly remembered how he’d been so mad at me these past few days that he hung up on calls that might have been from me.
Then later he got busy taking Kaya to some parent–kid activity and totally forgot about everything else.
Daddy’s vision went black and he almost collapsed in his chair as this huge scary feeling swallowed him up.
‘Let me talk to my daughter! I want to see her! Video call me right now!”
Daddy was practically screaming and not making much sense, then he said: “I’ll pay whatever you want! Don’t hurt my little girl! Please!”
A video call? That’s not really gonna work right now.”
he man sounded like a cat playing with a mouse, then he said: “Mr. Sullivan better start getting that money ready. Wait for our call…”
But right then, our front door made that beeping sound when someone put in the code.
addy looked up super fast, and there I was standing by the entrance, looking totally messed up.
was covered in dirt, my clothes were torn in a bunch of places, my hair was all tangled, and I had dust and little scratches on my face.
he kidnapper guy was still talking on the phone, but Daddy couldn’t hear anything anymore.
le hung up and basically threw himself at me to hug me.
Betty! You scared Daddy to death! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did those jerks do anything to you?”
le was trying to check me all over.
ut then I thought about how those bad guys called Daddy right in front of me, and he kept hanging up on them.
I jumped back a step, moved away from his hands, and looked at him with really cold eyes.
addy’s hand just hung there in the air, and after getting all excited, he started wondering stuff, “How did you get back home?”
said really calmly, “Mommy saved me.”
s soon as I said those three words, all the excitement disappeared from Daddy’s face. He looked cold and mean, with disgust in his eyes.
Betty Sullivan! How long are you gonna keep acting like this?”
You made up this whole fake kidnapping thing! Got your friends to call me and scare mel”
You think this is fun? This is how you’re gonna get back at me? How you’re gonna get my attention?”
addy looked down at me like I was a piece of trash.
I never thought you could be this awful! And you’re using Mommy as an excuse for your Hest”
Aren’t you scared she’s watching from heaven and feeling heartbroken?”
You disappoint me so much.”
Daddy kept yelling at me and saying mean things, but I didn’t feel hurt or mad like I used to.
even turned my head a little while he was shouting, trying to listen for this tiny sound I heard from far away.
Daddy, I saw Mommy. I even got to hug her.”
Chapter 4
My voice was really quiet, but inside I felt so happy and excited that there wasn’t room for any other feelings.
Daddy stopped for a second, then got even madder.
“Go to your room! I don’t want to see you anymore! You’ve completely lost it! You’re scaring me!”
Whether Daddy believed me or not didn’t matter to me at all anymore.
I smiled a little bit.
I found Mommy.
