Chapter 11

Evelyn appealed.

Of course she did.

But the appeals court upheld the decision.

The termination was permanent.

Final.

Evelyn would never have any legal right to Daniel.

Never.

We were free.

Well, as free as we could be.

Evelyn was still in prison.

She would be there for two more years.

But when she got out...

She would have no rights.

No legal way to get to Daniel.

And if she tried...

She would be facing even more serious charges.

Kidnapping. Custodial interference.

Felony charges.

That would put her away for a very long time.

We hoped that would be enough to deter her.

We hoped she would finally give up.

But we didn't count on it.

We continued with our security measures.

The cameras. The alarm system. The talks with the school.

We were still careful.

But we also started living again.

Really living.

Daniel started kindergarten.

He made friends. He loved school. He was happy.

Mark got a promotion at work.

I went back to school part-time. To get my master's degree.

We started planning for the future.

For Daniel's college. For our retirement. For our dreams.

We even started talking about having another baby.

Life was good.

Really good.

And then...

Two years passed.

Evelyn was released from prison.

And this time...

She didn't contact us.

She didn't send letters. She didn't drive past our house. She didn't show up at the park.

Nothing.

Silence.

It was strange.

Unnerving.

We waited for the other shoe to drop.

We waited for her to make her move.

But months passed.

And nothing happened.

A year passed.

Still nothing.

Two years passed.

Still nothing.

Slowly, we started to relax.

We started to think that maybe...

Maybe she had finally given up.

Maybe she had moved on.

Maybe she had decided to leave us alone.

We started to feel safe again.

Really safe.

We stopped checking the cameras every five minutes.

We stopped being paranoid when we went out in public.

We stopped living in fear.

It was wonderful.

We had another baby.

A girl.

We named her Grace.

Daniel was six now. He was so excited to be a big brother.

Our family was complete.

We were happy.

Truly happy.

And then...

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Evelyn came back.

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