I SEE YOU an unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by PATRICIA MACDONALD (bookstand for reading txt) 📗

Hannah nodded. ‘Of course. You’re right,’ she said.

‘I suppose we need to find an attorney,’ he said.

‘Wait, Adam, wait. Let’s just talk about it. When all is said and done, it’s Lisa. No matter what she’s done, she’s still our daughter.’

Adam looked at her impatiently. ‘Meaning what? We should just pretend we don’t know what she was planning?’

Hannah shook her head. ‘No. I don’t mean that.’

‘Don’t pretend that her intentions aren’t as clear as day. And don’t ask me to forgive her. Please, don’t do that. I’m sick to my stomach as it is.’

Hannah put her hand on his, as if to stay his anger. ‘I’m just thinking that we might avoid the whole public spectacle, for Sydney’s sake. Maybe we can make Lisa listen to reason. Let’s go and see her.’

‘I don’t think I can stand the sight of her,’ he said disgustedly.

‘Adam, listen. We have to at least talk to her first. If she finds out that we know about these letters, maybe she will be willing to just give us custody to avoid all the attorneys and the judicial circus.’

‘Oh, no. Quietly is one thing but if we do this, it all has to be legal,’ he said, wagging a finger at Hannah. ‘Every “t” crossed, every “i” dotted. I don’t want Lisa to be able to say that she changed her mind, or that she doesn’t have these . . . appetites anymore,’ he said, angrily brushing the letters onto the floor. ‘I’ll never trust her alone with that child again.’

Hannah shook her head, and her heart ached so badly that she felt as if a heart attack was imminent. ‘No. Me neither,’ she said.

‘Oh my God, it’s so sick!’ he cried.

‘I know,’ Hannah whispered.

Again they were silent, prisoners of all they now knew.

Finally Adam spoke. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘If we lay it out for her, she’ll have no choice but to capitulate. It’s that, or face more charges. And we can remind her that it won’t change anything that much. We’ve virtually had sole custody for months now.’

‘That’s what I’m hoping. And as hard as it is to turn my back on Lisa, we have to think of Sydney. She’s all that matters now. Her safety.’

‘Amen,’ he said.

‘So, you agree. We should try to talk to her?’ Hannah asked.

‘I suppose so,’ he sighed.

‘Should we go now?’ Hannah asked him, afraid of the answer.

‘It’s not going to get any easier,’ he said.

They were able to let Lisa know that they were coming. Because she was on work detail in the laundry, she was not allowed to come to the phone. But the operator who answered the phone promised to relay the message to her through a guard. Hannah and Adam looked at one another, and each saw anxiety and determination in the other’s eyes.

‘Let’s go, before we lose our will,’ said Adam. Hannah nodded agreement.

They were silent on the drive to the county jail, which was located in a dry, gray-brown field at the edge of a commercial strip outside of the city. The drive took about forty minutes. Although Hannah looked out the window the whole way, she saw nothing. She could not have described the passing landscape if her life depended on it. In her mind’s eye she was seeing her daughter. Lisa at four, on the swings. At ten, riding her bike, at fourteen, graduating from high school, a fragile child among her older classmates. She had been strange — yes. Strange because she was so much smarter than every other classmate and yet was too young to be included in their senior year privileges and hijinks. But when it came to a social life, Lisa was impatient with kids her own age, and found their concerns juvenile. She was often isolated. Hannah had sought out counseling for her, and she and Adam had done their level best to reassure her that she was special, gifted, lucky. A million times Hannah had allayed her own anxieties by telling herself that it would all level out for her in the end, and she would find her social niche.

Lisa’s pregnancy had come as a shock, and she was five months along when Hannah noticed her expanding belly, and Lisa finally admitted to it. Hannah had always suspected that some older boy had forced himself on her, at one of the intercollegiate brainiac competitions she sometimes attended in other cities. But Lisa refused to accuse anyone, and insisted that she wanted to keep her baby, even though Hannah and Adam knew full well that she was not yet capable of being a mother. They had always agreed that they would help her. They just never realized that they would be Sydney’s sole custodians a mere two years after she was born.

Adam pulled through the brick gateway topped by sharp-edged wire mesh and drove up the long driveway leading up to the prison. He turned and glanced at Hannah. ‘We have arrived,’ he said.

She nodded grimly. ‘Let’s just face it.’

Lisa was sitting with her back to the door when they arrived at the visitors’ room. DCDOC, standing for Davidson County Dept. of Corrections, was emblazoned on the back of her prison jumpsuit. Hannah immediately recognized Lisa’s mass of dark, unruly curls.

They walked around the table and stood there. Lisa looked up and her eyes behind her glasses lit up at the sight of them, and then, immediately, her gaze became wary. Hannah could not help herself. Despite all she knew, her heart went out to her child, who was now a prisoner in this godforsaken facility. She bent down and kissed her daughter awkwardly on the cheek. Adam remained standing, his arms crossed over his chest.

‘Dad?’

‘Hello, Lisa,’ he said.

‘Can we sit down?’ Hannah asked.

Lisa waved a hand indifferently. She was