narrowed. âCome on, Sarah; you canât deny this woman is you."
She couldnât deny it. Despite the different hair color, and the cuts and bruises she now wore, the face was the same one sheâd seen in the mirror. âEven if it is me, I donât remember having the picture taken. I donât remember being with you at all."
He shook his head in anger and frustration. âFine, you donât remember. So Iâll tell you the way it was. We had an intense, passionate relationship. We couldnât 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 didnât 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 didnât jive with the way youâd 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."
âI donât know what to say.â She felt damnation in each horrible word he uttered.
âThen 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 youâd harmed yourself and Caitlyn, too. But I kept telling them that youâd never hurt our child. You couldnât do such a thing."
âI donât believe that I did,â she said quickly. âOfficer Manning told me he found fresh milk in a bottle in the backseat of my car. Caitlyn has to be okay. Sheâs just somewhere I canât remember."
âI hope to God thatâs true, Sarah."
âIt has to be true,â she said, hearing desperation in her own voice.
âThen maybe you left me for another reason. I donât care anymore what that reason was. What you did to me was unforgivable. And seeing you now alive and well only makes me remember how many hours I wasted worrying about you. The days kept passing, and I couldnât get any answers. The police gave up. No evidence of a crime, just a runaway girlfriend -- thatâs what they called you. So I hired private investigators, one after another. They all came up empty. They told me to accept the fact that youâd left of your own volition, and youâd probably had help, because there was no trail whatsoever. Even my friends encouraged me to move on, forget the last two years of my life, as if I could do that. Weâd made a family, you, me, Caitlyn. And you ripped it apart. You destroyed everything."
If Jake was faking the raw, bitter pain in his voice, the agony in his eyes, he was an incredible actor. But if he was telling the truth, it sounded like she was a terrible person, cold and so cruel. Sarah didnât know which scenario she preferred.
âI donât understand,â she said helplessly.
âThat makes two of us,â he continued. âBecause when I went looking for you, I discovered that everything youâd told me about your past was a lie. I ran down your supposed relatives on the East Coast. You said your parents died when you were young, and that youâd gone to live with a grandmother in Boston, but that person didnât exist. You told me you went to Boston College, but they never heard of you. You came into my life out of nowhere, and you vanished exactly the same way. I almost started to think Iâd imagined you, made you up. I thought I was going crazy,â he said with a wave of his hand.
âYouâre saying that I lied to you from the beginning?â she asked in surprise.
âThatâs exactly what Iâm saying."
She put a hand to her temple as her headache deepened in intensity. Her senses began to spin, and her legs felt so weak she sat down heavily