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“Why do you think he believed that?”
“I don’t know. But I didn’t. It was Jeremy, not me. I’ve never raised a hand to her.”
Nicholas scribbled down more notes. “Were you concerned at the time that further abuse would happen?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t call Child Protective Services?”
“No, I didn’t. How could I?”
Nicholas stopped writing to look up at her. “Can you explain that please?”
“The doctor thought I had done it, and I knew Jeremy would lie. If I made the call, you might believe it was me instead of him, and take her from me.”
“So, you did nothing instead? You let the child remain in the vicinity of her father, who you feared would continue to abuse her?”
“No, I did not,” Vanessa snapped. Hot tears pricked her eyes and made her throat thick. Who was this guy to sit there and accuse her like this? “I left. I packed up our things and got out of there. Then I filed for divorce.”
“I see. You decided it would be best to kidnap her rather than go through the proper channels to keep her safe.”
“My ex-husband is very wealthy and powerful, Mr. Johnson. He has a way of convincing people to believe things that are untrue, or to lie on his behalf. I was afraid that if I went to the courts, he would get people to point the finger at me, and that I would end up losing my daughter and she’d be forced to live with an abusive father.”
“I see here that Jeremy filed for primary custody, claiming that you are unfit as a mother. You didn’t show up for the court date.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Again, I was afraid that he would hurt us both, so we left. I didn’t even know about the court date.”
“You were served papers.”
“I was not. If someone signed for them, they were pretending to be me.”
“You’re accusing the police of serving the wrong person?”
“No,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I’m saying I never got them.”
“Uh huh.” Nicholas made more notes. “I will be back for another home visit.” Nicholas got to his feet. “I expect Opal will be back from her ‘vacation’ by then.” He walked to the door, paused to shut off the recorder, and nodded to Vanessa. “Thank you for your time.”
He let himself out and when the door closed behind him, Vanessa stood. She balled her fists and turned to face Hunter.
“That bastard,” she said. “When we find him, I will kill him myself. I can’t believe he did this.”
She stormed off to her room and snatched her phone from her bedside table. She brought up the number Jeremy had called her from and dialed.
“Who are you calling?” Hunter said, appearing in her doorway.
“Hi honey,” Jeremy said.
“Don’t you dare call me that, you son of a bitch. How dare you call CPS on me? You know you’ve always been the one to get violent. You’re nothing but a worthless junkie, who has to take his anger out on everyone else because he can’t handle the failure he’s become.”
Jeremy burst into laughter, and Hunter came around the bed to her.
“Oh honey,” Jeremy said. “That’s the least of what I’ll do if you don’t bring Opal back to me. And you should know that if you don’t show up for the next court date, the only excuse the judge will accept is an obituary with your name on it. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Listen to me, you asshole—”
Hunter snatched the phone from her hand and hit end.
“What are you doing!” she shouted.
