The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

101

WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS my daughter?"

Klarise couldn't even stand right as she crawled around the house, her voice scratched into shrieks no one outside could hear in our soundproof place.

"Klarise, stop it, you're hurting yourself." I ran after her, on my knees myself and dragging my weight along her even as she tried to push me off each time.

She cried and cried.

Behind us, Cameron had come out of his panic place but was also still dangling a foot back in there as he murmured to himself and fidgeted fiercely.

"Isabella!" Klarise called around as she stepped one hand over the other and lifted kneecaps on marble. "Isabella, where are you? Come on, don't scare Mommy like this." She laughed coldly, tears running heavily down her cheeks.

"We already told you, Klarise—and showed you on the surveillance cameras—that someone had kidnapped her while Cameron and I were away and you were sleeping. Please, will you stop doing this right now and keep a cool head so we can talk this through?"

At last, she gave most of her attention on screaming Isabella over and over again to look at me. And really look at me, eyes squinting with what I could recognize as a bit of speculation. I turned cold, spine icy as I chose my next words carefully.

"I know you're worried about Isabella, but screaming and yelling right now in our place where for a high chance she probably isn't even at anymore will not help her."

She bites her bottom lip and glanced around like Isabella might be somewhere in the corner.

I tried again. "You love her, we all love her. But we can't let that blind us to drag on this time when we could actually be searching for her in a more practical and effective way."

Then, easily without resistance, all suspicion dies when her face crumbles and she falls into my arms. I wrap them tightly around her, stroking her head. "Why w-would anyone take her? No one knows her existence like that. No one knows she's y-yours or mine, or even Cameron's!" She choked on her tears. "Why would someone take her away from me? How c-can someone be so horrid?"

She grasped at her chest, a tight fist there, and it looked like she had a piece of her heart taken out. A part of her; cut out.

I swallowed down my guilt and made my voice steady.

"Let's not assume the worst yet. She could be safe for all we know."

She nodded against me, over and over again to convince herself more than anyone else in the room.

—————

We chose not to call the police into this, and Klarise's reaction backfired.

"It'll draw too much attention." I said, trying to calm her as she was now the angriest mom on the whole planet, waving and flashing her arms around to anyone who got unluckily too close to her and had also suggested wrong doings to her baby.

"Bullshit. I don't care. We're going to put up posters or whatever it is you do and let the whole world look for her."

Cameron, who has now taken several deep breaths, had a worried frown. He shares a look with me, asking me for instructions on what to do, and I stare back to tell him to put a word in for me. If we couldn't convince Klarise to not broadcast Isabella's disappearance, it won't be long until trouble will arise from where Bridget is. But even if we can't convince her, there's still a good chance no one can find a one week old baby from certain descriptions. I was relieved Klarise hadn't thought about beforehand to post pictures of us gathered around Isabella as a source to find her. Now, as her voice grew louder and her body more tense, she was in no position to think clearly.

"I think Maeve is right, we shouldn't get the cops involved." Cameron offered timidly, and Klarise, if I hadn't grabbed her arm in time, was about to hurl herself at him.

"How dare you! She is your daughter too, and you're here acting like it's nothing! Fuck you, Cameron, fuck you! I can't believe I even slept with you!"

At this point, no one acknowledges her last sentence. It didn't matter now. What mattered was putting out the fire at hand.

"I'm not trying to imply it like that! I love Isabella with all my heart, but you should know that the cops will just likely involve the press so they can get some title. If anything, the police now over the years are useless. They'll just bring us trouble."

Klarise, still resisting under my grip but weakened from the leftover drugs in her system, started to tear up.

"I-I don't care about the press. I just want my daughter back."

"We know, and it's okay." Her rapid, painful, nails that were dug into my arms fall away and I hug her into me. I grimace at the marks of blood on them, how it stung, but I deserved it, and so I took it. I held my lover toward me, doing everything I can to comfort her.

Cameron and I shared a look in that moment, and we both knew what it meant: Follow the plan, don't make any changes because of Klarise's commotion. Whatever it is, we can't let the press find out about any of this.

I inhaled, smelling her lavender scent that lingered on her hair. Then, I nodded at Cameron with my hand holding Klarise's head to my chest as she soaked tears on them. She's oblivious to my exchanges with Cameron.

"We can't put posters up or post anything about Isabella. People will be more interested in knowing how Isabella came to be, and not on actually searching for her. They'll raise questions and damage our careers. And darling," I stroked one messy strand of hair behind her ear. "I wouldn't want that for your career, the career you've put your life into."

She doesn't respond, just sobs into me and I felt pieces of me being cut out as she did so.

"We'll hire a private agent to look for her," I offered at last, and her eyes gleamed when she raised her damp face.

She wiped away those tears with a sleeve. "R-Really? So we'll look for her?"

Next to me, Cameron was telling me with his eyes: What the hell? I remained calm and composed, ignoring him.

"Yeah, just because we can't let the press know doesn't mean we're forever doomed." I lighten my voice at the end, and Klarise gives in a slight laugh as she hugs me tighter. I'm a little taken back by the gesture, but I embrace it even though I didn't deserve it.

"I love you, Maeve. For everything you have done for me and everything you can do right now." She sounded calmer than before, her mind clearing. "I'm sorry for acting out earlier. You're right. To find Isabella, we need to figure it out another way without involving the press which will just make a mess of things."

I kiss her on the cheek as I rub her back. "I love you too. Thank you for understanding."

She settles back a little then, looking from Cameron and then to me. "But, um, I don't know what to do from here. What will we tell people and press about this past year when we've been gone from the world for so long?" She doesn't mention the few years since Cameron's hosting clubs and parties started (and the strippers and girls she slept with), but her not saying it was pretty much enough as the same question as asking how to fix my relationship with Cameron on the outside to the press. Or give a reasoning.

Ah, everything was a disaster and a pile of mess waiting to be cleaned up.

Forcing up a reliable smile at Cameron, I looked back at Klarise with a reassuring grin.

"Don't worry about that actually...we've figured that part out already."