Read Thread of Betrayal for Free Online

prior, helping out an old friend, when I’d gotten the photo of Elizabeth that set this entire search in motion. In the middle of helping my friend, Lauren and I spent the night together in the hotel where I was staying. It was the first time we’d been together since the divorce. And there hadn’t been time to discuss it.
    “Weird?” I asked, then shook my head. “No. It was the opposite of that.”
    “Opposite?”
    “Familiar,” I said. “Comfortable. Right. I don’t know how to explain it.” I paused. “We got divorced because we went different ways. Not because we didn’t love each other. At least, that’s how I’ve always looked at it.”
    She nodded in agreement. “Me, too. And I’m not trying to rehash any of the old stuff. We’ve done that.” A faint smile drifted on to her face. “And it felt the same way for me. Familiar. In a good way. I needed it.”
    I smiled back, unsure what else to say. At that moment, I’d needed it, too. Needed to be comforted and loved and with her. Not someone random, but her.
    “Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we were still together?” she asked. “Like, if we’d gotten through her disappearance somehow and managed to stay together?”
    “Yeah. Sure. I’ve thought about it. Probably wished for it.” I traced my finger along the steering wheel. “My anger hasn’t always been about Elizabeth being taken. It was also about what her being gone did to you and me. Whoever took our daughter also took our marriage.”
    Her lips pursed. “Yeah. Yeah.”
    “I will always be angry about that,” I said. “No one can give us that back, you know?”
    Lauren started to say something, then stopped. Then she turned to me. “You think we’d have had another child?”
    My smile was genuine. Instantaneous. “Yeah. Without a doubt. We said we always wanted two. And that we wanted some space in between them, to enjoy them. So, yeah. I think so.”
    The smile found her face again. “Yeah.” She started to say something else, but her eyes shifted past me and the smile disappeared. “Car. In the driveway.”
    I turned to see a white Ford Explorer stop just short of the garage door. I could see a driver.
    And no one else.
    I pushed my door open, the warm air of the car interior replaced by a cold, sharp wind. I stepped onto the sidewalk and Lauren was right behind me.
    The girl wore black yoga pants and a hot-pink thermal vest over a long-sleeve black T-shirt. Her long black hair was expertly woven into a tight French braid and adorned with a thick hot-pink headband. She scurried around the front end of the Explorer, heading to the front door of the house. She froze when she saw us.
    I held up a hand. “Hi. Are you Morgan?”
    Her bright green eyes regarded us. “Who are you?”
    “I’m Joe,” I said. “This is Lauren. Are you Morgan?”
    “Do I know you?” she asked, taking another step toward the front door.
    “No. But you know our daughter. Elizabeth. Or Ellie. Corzine.”
    She looked from me to Lauren, then back to me, her hands fidgeting inside the pockets of her vest. “Who?”
    “Ellie Corzine,” I said. “I think you picked her up at a hotel earlier this morning?”
    Her already pink cheeks flushed brighter. “You’re her parents?” Her tone was derisive. “From Minnesota?”
    I knew she didn’t believe us. If she’d been friends with Elizabeth back in Minnesota, she would have met the Corzines. Known them. We were complete strangers to this girl.
    “No,” Lauren said slowly, her voice shaking. “We’re her real parents. Who she was taken from.”
    The color drained out of her face. “Holy shit.” Just as quickly, a flush of color returned to her cheeks. “I mean, sorry.”
    I looked at the car again. “She’s not with you?”
    “I, uh…I…”
    “Morgan,” I said, sharply. “Morgan Thompkins. I think you were friends with her back in Minnesota. She called you. She ran away because she found out she was adopted. Only guess