Finally they had an answer.
“Then would you like to leave here, right now?” Doreen asked. “I promise there’s help waiting for you and Isaac.”
She whispered, “No, I can’t. I’m not allowed to leave.”
“Well, it’s a different story right now,” she said. “I have the police close by.”
The other woman shook her head and whispered, “It’s not that easy.”
Realizing this was far more traumatic than Doreen had expected, and keeping Thaddeus well in view, she crouched in front of the woman. “How long have you been here?” she asked softly.
The woman looked at her with haunted eyes. “A very long time.”
With her heart slamming against her chest, Doreen asked, “Did you come here as a child?”
She nodded. “I was twelve,” she whispered. “I was brought here when I was twelve.”
“And how old are you now?”
The woman gave her a ghost of a smile. “I think I’m twenty-two. But I’m not sure.”
“Good enough,” Doreen said, reaching out a hand and giving her arm a reassuring squeeze. “Putting the message on Thaddeus was a cry for help, and it worked.”
The woman looked at Thaddeus, and, for the first time, a smile broke free. “He is beautiful,” she said. “It was a split-second impulse.”
“It was a good one,” Doreen said. She rose and gently grasped the woman’s hand and helped her to take a few steps forward. “Have you always lived on this part of the property?”
The woman shook her head. “No. For a while I was inside the house, and now I’m out here.”
“Is that better?”
The woman slid her a glance and shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Is that your family in there?” The woman gave a violent shrug. “Except for Isaac?”
Again, the smile broke free. “Isaac is mine,” she whispered.
And that’s when Doreen realized what was going on. “You were kidnapped as a child, weren’t you? Kept here as a captive, and the man in that house forced himself on you, and you became pregnant, right?”
She nodded slowly. “For a long time, I was part of the family. But, when Isaac was born, he moved me back here. Isaac was in the house with me, and now he is out here with me.”
“Ah,” Doreen whispered, as she slowly led the young woman out into the backyard between sheds.
“If he sees you talking to me,” the woman said quietly, “he’ll be very angry.”
Doreen looked at her, smiled, and said, “Let him. He is not facing a young child anymore. He’ll be facing me. And more than that, Mack is here too.”
The woman’s eyebrows rose. “Mack?”
“Mack.” As they stood here, Thaddeus walked across her arm and walked over to the young woman, then gently rubbed up against her. “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”
The woman laughed. “It feels so strange,” she said, “to even talk to another person.”
“He kept you isolated because it kept you as a victim,” Doreen said, remembering various tactics of her own husband, even though this situation was very different. Holding this woman’s hand, she gently walked her back to where Isaac had escaped through the fence. As they walked closer to the fence, the young woman said, “Why are we going here?”
“Because Mack is here.”
“Right. You were going to tell me who Mack is.”
“He is the defender of the innocent, a protector of the young and the old alike,” she said, and, with a smile, she pointed out Mack, standing there, a confused look on his face, as the two women approached him carefully. “He is with the police, and he will help you.”
“Are you sure?” asked the young woman.
Doreen nodded and squeezed her fingers, lacing their hands together. “What’s your name?”
“Izzy,” she said. “Isabelle, but Izzy for short.”
“And where did you live before, Izzy?”
She looked at her in surprise, and, as they got closer to Mack, she said, “Vancouver.” Looking around, she said, “But aren’t we in Vancouver?”
Mack looked at her in surprise, then looked at Doreen. As he opened the hole in the fence a little bit, he let Mugs through to join Doreen.
“This is Mugs,” Doreen said. Mugs immediately wrapped his sturdy body around Izzy’s legs.
She laughed and bent down to give him a cuddle. “He is beautiful.”
Never to be outdone, Goliath came through as well. Izzy looked up at Doreen. “Are they all yours?”
Little Isaac popped out from behind the shed. “They’re all hers,” he said, laughing, as he bent to give Mugs a big hug.
Izzy looked at him with love, smiled, then looked up at Doreen. “Really?”
Doreen smiled and nodded. “It’s okay,” she said. “Someday you might get some sort of pet too.”
The woman looked confused and then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh, I do,” Doreen said, with a bright smile. “Your future is completely different now.” As Izzy and Isaac played with the animals, she took half a step closer to Mack but kept her fingers linked with the young woman. Needing to keep her moving forward. She motioned at the fence.
Mack leaned closer with a question in his eyes, and she whispered, “You need to check for a child who disappeared ten years ago—out of Vancouver.” His eyebrows shot up, as he looked at her, looked back at Izzy, and then back at her again. She nodded slowly. His gaze shot to the house on the other side. She deliberately didn’t look.
“And I need to get her out of here,” she whispered.
He nodded slowly and pushed the wire hole open, even as he pulled out his phone. Moving the animals ahead, she gently urged Izzy out of the fence first, along with Isaac. Slowly, and as a unit, they walked down the path toward Mack’s truck. He was busy on the phone, and Doreen kept Izzy and Isaac busy with the animals, as they moved toward the truck. As soon as they got there, Izzy looked up at it and stopped.
“This is Mack’s truck,” Doreen said quietly, her gaze looking around at everybody else.
“And does that matter?” Izzy asked nervously.
Obviously she was scared about taking this big step. “It matters a lot,” Doreen said, “because Mack is one of the good guys.”
“But what am I supposed to do?” she asked. “I have no way to make a living. I can’t work or do anything. How will I take care of Isaac? He said I’ll never see Isaac again if I try to escape.”
“You don’t have to worry about any of that right now,” she said. Opening up the truck door, Isaac immediately scrambled into the back seat along with Mugs, who jumped up.
Izzy laughed. “How is it that the animals are so okay with the truck?” she marveled.
“You will be too,” Doreen said, and she boosted Izzy up. Just then came a shout from the house and out came the man they had met at the front door. Immediately Mack stepped forward to talk to him, and Izzy started to cry. Doreen hopped into the back seat, wrapped her arms around Izzy and Isaac, and held them close.