I nodded. Made myself breathe in and out. “I’ll keep this between us. No police, or even family. I’ll have the phone with me, every second, and answer when you call. I’ll do exactly what you tell me to do.”

“Good,” she said. “Good.”

“Can you please tell me how much now, though? I might have to move things around.”

Whatever amount she said, I would get it. I would loot our accounts, sell everything we owned. I would steal my mother’s pistol from her gun safe and rob a bank. I’d almost rather that than call Trey’s parents for cash, but I would do that, too.

There was a small, shocked silence, and then she asked, “You think this is about money?”

“I . . . I thought—” I stammered. It had to be money. What else did we have?

“You think I’d take a baby to get money?” Her voice rose, incredulous, and Robert gave a protesting mewl. Immediately her voice softened into shushing noises. “Ch-ch-ch.”

She understood babies, this mother, and she was being gentle with him. His cry subsided. It made me grateful to her, an involuntary golden gleam inside my fear and rage and hate. Our slim connection strengthened, running back from her to me.

“I’m sorry. It was an assumption. I can’t know what you want. But I’ll do whatever you say.”

I wasn’t trying to soothe her. There was no room for pretending between us. This was truth, raw and ugly. She owned me, and we both understood that. Somewhere, in a car that was moving farther away from me every second, I heard Robert sigh and stir in her arms.

“Hm.” It was a little hum of sound, thoughtful. “I’m almost to a place where I can stop for a little. Hold on a minute.”

I waited, listening to road sounds and her breathing. The traffic sounds faded, and then her car’s engine went quiet.

Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. Intimate. Confessional. And then she told me what she wanted.

5

“Mrs. Cabbat, I’m old. You can likely hear that in my voice. What you can’t hear is, I’m also sick. The kind of sick that means I got no energy to spare, and I don’t have much time left. So I got nothing to lose. I could go to prison for the rest of my life and still be free before summer ends, you understand? I don’t care what happens to me. I only care about my daughter.”

I felt myself nod. I only cared about my son.

She went on. “Taking your baby, that was my plan, my choice. All my girl has done is watch, so this is on me, and finding me won’t lead you to her. I won’t even see her again until you and I are finished. Maybe not even then, depending on how it goes.”