Baby Love Lite (16 page)

“
I want my baby back!” I
wailed it over and over again. “Trey, I need her back with
me.”

“
I know baby. I know,” he
choked unable to contain his tears. “We'll get her back, I promise
you that. The FBI has our phone tapped; they're checking the
surveillance videos from the lobby and parking garage. The Georgia
State Police have issued Levi’s Call. We'll have our Chubbers back
soon, baby, I promise.”

The tears and the emotion had caused a
letdown in my breasts. They were so full of milk they hurt. Damn,
why hadn’t I thought to bring my breast pump? I had to keep my milk
flowing or I would dry up. I wasn't about to let Maggie be the last
one to nurse my baby.

“
Trey, do we have time
before our flight back to stop somewhere and buy a breast pump? I
need to keep pumping until Preston is back.”

“
Sure sweetie,” he said,
kissing my lips gently.

Our apartment seemed empty and desolate upon
our return. Trey had obviously been back there since the incident
to get his mom’s stuff packed up. She and Clive had already flown
out by the time we got in. They were to call Trey later this
evening. Tristan would stay in the bed in the nursery where Susan
had slept. I couldn’t bring myself to go into that room. Trey had
kept the door shut since we'd arrived back home.

I immediately went to our suite to take a
shower. I felt exhausted and drained. I emerged from the bathroom
in my warm terrycloth robe, with a towel wrapped around my damp
hair. I climbed up on our bed with my breast pump and empty
bottles. I was able to fill two of them.

Trey came in just after I'd finished pumping.
“Do you want me to put these in the refrigerator?” he asked.

“
Yes please, but make sure
you put one of those stickers I have out there in the kitchen with
the day of the week printed on it, okay?"

“
Sure, baby,” he said taking
leave.

I removed the towel from my hair and combed
through the damp locks. My eyes drifted to her white bassinet that
was still in our room. She'd nearly outgrown it but I still had
occasionally put her in it for naps before I'd started back to work
at the firm.

The firm. Shit! I wondered who was going to
handle Leah’s responsibilities. Her surgery was scheduled for
tomorrow. Something popped up in my mind as I was thinking about
the firm. There was something I recalled coming up in the next few
weeks in front of a panel of judges. That’s right - it was with a
federal judge that had a name like mine only backwards. Judge
Preston James Tylar. It was scheduled in a court in Baton Rouge, as
I recalled.

I got off from the bed to find Trey. I'd
meant to mention this to him before all of this happened. I walked
down the hallway and saw that the light was on in his study.

I quietly approached the door expecting him
to have his Cell phone up to his ear while typing on his laptop but
his chair was turned so that his back was to me. He was leaning
back staring over at the corner of the room. It was Preston’s empty
swing. One of her little rubber squeeze toys was in the tray by the
seat. I watched as Trey leaned forward and picked up the little
pink rubber clothespin that had a face on it. He squeezed it a
couple of times making it squeak the way she did when she chewed on
it.

I saw his shoulders shake with sadness. He
lowered his head into his hands, covering his face and sobbed. He
was in just as much pain as I was right now. What had made me think
that my pain was any worse than his? I hurried over to him, placing
my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me with his beautiful
sapphire eyes reflecting his pain and his sadness.

“
God, Tylar,” he choked,
“Will you ever be able to forgive me?”

I knelt down in front of him, taking his
hands in mine totally confused as to why my husband felt that he
needed to ask for my forgiveness.

“
Trey, I don’t understand.
What have you done that would make you think you need my
forgiveness?”

“
I didn’t listen to you when
you were having those dreams. They were premonitions, weren’t they?
I fucking insisted you go back to the office even when it meant
having to hire someone to come in to our home and take care of the
baby! Look what I’ve caused? Because of me, my mother's been
injured and my daughter's gone… abducted.”

“
Trey, you were worried
about me. You did what you thought was in my best interest.
Remember you telling me that you wanted to know that I could
survive in a world where peace of mind and security weren’t
guaranteed without withdrawing or freaking out? You wanted me to be
a strong person, not a paranoid person.”

“
I thought it was concern,”
he replied angrily, “maybe it was pure and simple
jealousy.”

“
I don’t understand,” I
replied.

“
I don’t know, Tylar. Maybe
I was just jealous of all of the attention you gave the baby and
felt left out. Perhaps my motivation was more
self-serving.”

“
I don’t believe that for
one minute, Trey. Even Dr. Hunter had concerns. You need to stop
beating yourself up with this. We need to be a team more than ever
now.”

He raked his hands through his hair,
continuing to look tormented. I couldn’t bear to see him like that.
I needed to do something so that we connected again. I raised
myself up and crawled into his lap. I cupped my hands around his
beautiful face, kissing his tears away. Our lips met and we kissed
hungrily. I pulled back my eyes searching his.

“
I need you to make love to
me, Trey.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Much later Trey and I lay entwined in each
other's arms, clinging to one another in love and support, neither
of us able to sleep. It dawned on me that Tristan was staying with
us, but I'd not seen him earlier. I disentangled myself from Trey,
sitting up quickly.

"What is it babe?" he asked, sitting up with
me.

“
I forgot to see if Tristan
needed anything. Did he get settled in the guest room?” I refused
to refer to it as the nursery until Preston was home.

“
He’s fine,” Trey answered.
“He was watching ESPN in the living room earlier in between ‘sext’
messages.”

“
What?” A faint smile
finally graced Trey's lips. “It appears that Tristan is either in
love or in lust. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Some woman
named Libby," he replied.

“
Does she live in
California?”

“
Actually, she lives here in
Atlanta. He met her on the plane."

“
Are you
serious?”

He nodded, smiling. “I think Tristan's on the
cusp of his mid-life crisis,” he added.

“
Oh right, he's turning
forty soon. I guess I forgot about that. Your mom had said
something a week or so ago about throwing him a major party for the
occasion.”

“
We’ve had a lot on our
minds, baby. I’m sure if we fast forward to the party we'll have
Preston in our arms for the occasion.”

“
The sooner, the better,” I
remarked tearing up again.

“
Tristan is planning on
moving back to Virginia.”

“
Really?” I asked. “What
about his winery?”

“
He's selling it to Nigel;
he wants to expand the winery at the ‘Belle. He's working the
details out with Dad."

“
Go to sleep now,
baby.”

Goodnight, Trey. I love you.”

Goodnight, Baby. I love you.”

By ten o'clock the following morning Trey had
updated the Georgia State Police with the information relative to
the VIN number, license plate numbers, year, make and model of
Daniel’s SUV to update Levi’s Call. Pictures of the vehicle, along
with pictures of Preston and Maggie, were run on the local network
evening news all over Georgia.

The FBI had also alerted the same updated
information for AMBER alerts in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama,
Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky. A photo of Maggie and Preston had
been dispatched to all of the applicable agencies with an alert
that Maggie may be wearing a grey wig in order to appear older than
her forty-two years of age.

Trey, along with his parents had personally
put up a $200,000 reward for anyone submitting information that led
to the safe return of our baby, no questions asked. The feds
weren’t keen on this type of incentive. Trey and I were willing to
do whatever it took to get our baby back.

Trey needed to go into the office, so Tristan
was taking me down to the police station where a detective was
going to be questioning Sheila Bradley from the resume that Maggie
had used to get signed with the agency. What was the
connection?

Tristan and I headed downtown around 10:30
a.m. to meet with the detectives. We were ushered into a room with
a two-way, glass window where we could view the questioning. “How
are you holding up, Tylar?” he asked gently.

“
I’m fine, Tristan, as long
as I keep myself busy and active in the search.”

“
I thought as much,” he
replied. "Don't worry; we'll get her back."

A detective came into the room with us. He
introduced himself as Detective Hook. He informed us that the
investigators were on their way in with Sheila Bradley.

Within moments, the door opened and Sheila
Bradley was ushered in by two detectives. The female detective
started the questioning; identifying each of them, explaining that
the interview was being videotaped. She asked Sheila the basic
questions: name, date of birth, current residence, employment,
marital status and so forth. She then presented Sheila a photo of
Maggie. It was the same photo being circulated by the media so
chances were Sheila knew why she was being questioned.

“
Do you recognize the woman
in this picture, Mrs. Bradley?”

“
Yes, I believe that I do.
She came to the hospital a few months back and wanted to see her
newborn grandchild. It was past visiting hours. She gave me a sob
story.”

“
What kind of story?” the
detective probed.

“
She said she'd just arrived
in Atlanta an hour or so before coming to the hospital. She said
that her daughter had been through a very difficult labor and
delivery and that she didn’t want to bother her. She just wanted a
glimpse of her grandbaby. She didn’t even know if her daughter had
delivered a boy or a girl. She provided me with her daughter’s name
and I pulled her file.”

“
What happened then, Mrs.
Bradley?”

“
I didn’t see any harm in
letting the woman see her granddaughter, so I told her to wait
outside the window in the hall. I collected the baby girl and
allowed her grandma to see her behind the glass. There was
absolutely no risk to the baby, I assure you.”

“
Did you see this woman
again?”

“
Yes, as of matter of fact I
did. It was that same night. I'd clocked out after my shift and got
on the elevator to go down to the ground floor she was already on
the elevator, which I found strange because visiting hours were
over everywhere in the hospital. She approached me when I got
outside to the parking lot as I was getting into my
car.”

“
What did she
say?”

“
She thanked me for my
compassion in allowing her to see her grand-daughter. She said that
her daughter unfortunately had gotten herself into a predicament
with this man, the father of her grandchild, and that he was
abusive to her daughter. She said she was trying to help her
daughter leave the man, and that he couldn't know she was in town.
She asked me if I'd help her get access to the baby to keep her out
of harm's way."

“
Are you saying she wanted
you to assist her in taking the baby from the hospital?” Detective
Hook spoke up.

“
That’s what I gathered. I
told her flat out, no way. She offered me $20,000 and said that it
would never come back on me. I told her no way again and told her
to leave me alone.”

“
Then what happened?” the
investigator questioned.

“
She became very angry; she
became a totally different person. She scared me. A white SUV
pulled up beside her. I thought she'd just get in the car and get
out of my life. But the driver got out and before I knew what was
happening, I was pushed to the ground; my purse was taken. I was
stunned for a few moments, sort of like being in shock. When I
gathered my wits, she was gone and the SUV was gone. I wasn’t
positive that they were connected. It all happened so fast. I mean
as far as I knew, it was a random theft and one thing had nothing
to do with the other.”

“
Did you report what
happened to the authorities?”

Sheila Bradley bowed her head down in shame.
She shook her head back and forth negatively. “No, I didn't. I
didn’t report the purse snatching nor did I report her request of
me in the parking lot that night. I'd very little cash in my purse
and as soon as I got home, I cancelled my credit cards. There was
really no damage done.”

“
Mrs. Bradley,” the
detective pursued, “You didn't feel that it was necessary to report
the request that was made of you to assist in an infant’s abduction
from the hospital?”

“
That’s right,” she answered
succinctly. “Do you know why? It’s because nobody working at that
hospital would dare try such a stunt. There are cameras everywhere
in that nursery. Not only that, there are cameras at all exits and
entrances as well as in the elevators and stairwells. I was
concerned enough over the fact that I'd allowed her to be in the
hallway after visiting hours without reporting her to security. Let
me tell you detective, we see all kind of nut jobs on the maternity
floor; mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings. If I reported
these as they happened I'd never get any nursing done. That’s a
fact.”