The Business Trip

by Jessie Garcia

She could care for complete strangers with tenderness, but not show an ounce of TLC for her own daughter.

Primal fear was not a feeling I had experienced many times in my life, but I recognized it right away. It burst into my pores. Those words “He’s coming” felt like something out of a horror movie.

Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead. My throat felt hoarse. I wondered if I would be able to talk to the 9-1-1 operator. Forcing my fingers to function, I pushed those dreaded three buttons that no one wants to use and held the phone to my ear, my heart thumping so loudly I could hear it, blood pulsing at my ears.

That night at my place when Steph told me that she would be willing to endure a disease, a few nights in the woods, or a friendly kidnapper to get her son back in her corner. This wasn’t some giant cat and mouse game, was it? Was Trent the friendly kidnapper? Could she possibly have staged this to make Evan worry for a while and then return triumphantly?

It’s not over until it’s over. I won’t believe it until someone proves it.

“That one is a Jasmine V. Littleton. The second potential victim is a Stephanie H. Monroe.

What if I took this one step further and actually became her? How would that look? What would that mean? If she disappeared and I became Stephanie,

He seemed so fatherly it gave me a sharp pang for the man I never knew.

Time for a woman to help a woman out of a jam.

Pictures would be part of my paper trail for the police.

This was a pivotal moment in my life. Would I ever return to the only country I had ever been in? Ever? The answer was clearly no. I would be much safer there, and I would just have to build a new life.

Turning to look at the ocean, I thought about my future, so unknown now.