"That's not what the doctor said."

"What?" Lorenzo looked at her with a blank look in his eyes. "Are you telling me that I didn't fall?"

"No, you fell," she said. "But what caused you to fall?"

Lorenzo returned his gaze to the ceiling.

The IV pump began beeping at regular intervals. Tia looked at the hanging bag of solution and saw that it was almost gone. Like the bag, she was running on empty, and she didn't know how much longer she would be able to handle Lorenzo's unemotional state. She looked back at him. "What's wrong, Lorenzo?" She placed her hand on the bed rail. "What's really wrong?"

He remained silent as he choked back the tears he knew would come as soon as he opened his mouth.

She touched his shoulder gently. "Tell me."

He looked at her and rolled his eyes.

She stood next to his bedside feeling completely useless.

Just then, the nurse came in, and Tia picked up her purse to leave.

"The bag is almost empty," she said to the nurse as she walked angrily out of the room.

Chapter Thirty-seven.

Tia sat in her car in the hospital parking structure. She started the engine and let the car warm up, then lowered her head onto the steering wheel. What was wrong with Lorenzo? Why did he hate her so?

The past thirteen years of their marriage hadn't been easy. She'd had to get used to Lorenzo's episodes of gloominess, and the hardest part had been never knowing when they were going to occur or even why they occurred. Still, their years together hadn't been all bad. There had been some good times too, some beautiful times, and she had held on to them.

She remembered the drives she and Lorenzo would take to Milwaukee when Serenity had been younger. Sometimes they'd drive the whole way back without speaking. And Tia would be amazed at the connection that flowed between them in the silence.

At the end of those drives, Lorenzo would park the car in the garage and say, "That was a nice drive."

And Tia would respond. "Yes, it was beautiful."

She remembered the silly jokes she told that made him giggle, and how just him smiling would make her smile. And she remembered how they would study the Bible together, often searching for answers to questions that one or the other had.

As time went by, Tia began to notice a decrease in the number of intimate times she and Lorenzo shared. And when there was an occasion, it seemed as if he was just going through the motions.

It was during Serenity's eleventh year that Tia noticed a distinct change in Lorenzo. The severity of his sullen moods increased, and he became distant and emotionally unavailable. Trying to talk to him about his behavior had been useless. He would either deny that anything was wrong or he'd give her short, snappy answers in an attempt to shut her up.

Droplets of moisture fell from her eyes and landed on the bottom of the steering wheel. What had happened? She couldn't do this much longer. It was too much. Even now, lying in a hospital bed, he still had nothing nice to say to her.

"Father, help me," she cried. Her shoulders heaved up and down rapidly. "It's too much. It's just too much!" She shook her head from side to side. "How much do you want me to bear, Lord? I can't do this." She folded her arms and began rocking back and forth. "Give me strength," she whispered as her tears subsided. "Give me strength."

The air flowing from the car vents began to feel warm as Tia slowly pulled out of the parking structure. She looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. It was almost 8:00 p.m. It had been a long day, and the nausea rising in the center of her stomach reminded her that she hadn't had anything to eat since she'd left for church that morning, and then headed straight to Serenity's audition.

She drove the several miles home quickly. When she pulled into her garage, the only thing on her mind was eating something and going to sleep. She didn't have the energy-mentally or physically-for anything else. She left the garage door up while she called Shari. The phone rang once before Shari answered.

"Hey, how's Lorenzo?" Shari asked.

"The doctor said he'll be all right," Tia said coldly. "He took too many pills."

Shari let out a sigh of relief. "Thank G.o.d he'll be all right."

"Yeah, this time," Tia said angrily. "What if Serenity hadn't found him? I should go and throw away every pill I find. How's Serenity?"

Shari looked at the phone, then at Tony.

"You're going to have to tell her," he said.

Shari inhaled deeply.

"Tia," she said, "when we pulled up in front of your house, the ambulance was just leaving." Shari hesitated. "And Serenity wasn't there."

"Where was she?"

"We don't know."

Tony nudged Shari's shoulder. "You have to tell her," he said.

Tia could hear Tony in the background. "Tell me what?" she asked. "What is Tony talking about?"

"Well," Shari said. She spoke slowly and with a tranquil tone; it was the same tone she used at work when a frustrated or agitated client called her looking for help. "Earlier today, Tony and I found a bunch of chat sites on the computer that Serenity and Cookie had been visiting."

Tia's mind went back to the day before when she and Serenity were going to visit her mother and Lorenzo had accused Serenity of talking to boys on the computer.

"Was Serenity talking to a boy?" Tia asked.

"Yeah, but it's more than that."

"What else, Shari?"

Shari could hear the tenseness in Tia's voice. Her mouth had suddenly become extremely dry. "Well," she said swallowing hard, "Cookie said Serenity made plans to meet the boy."

"She did what?"

"Now try to stay calm, Tia. You already have one situation on your hands."

"When was this supposed to happen?" Tia's voice was hard and edgy.

"Today. That's why we weren't home. When I couldn't reach you or Serenity, Tony thought we should go try to, you know, intercept the meeting."

"And you didn't find her?" The pitch of her voice rose.

"No, we didn't."

"Oh my G.o.d," Tia moaned. Just when she thought G.o.d had heard her prayer and had given her an extra dose of strength, here was another battle. Was this the reason G.o.d had strengthened her? Not so she could make it through what she was already going through but to bring her through what was about to come. "I can't do this. Not now, Lord!"

"We'll be right over," Shari said and hung up the phone.

Chapter Thirty-eight.

Moments later, Shari, Tony, and Cookie were sitting in Tia's living room. She was about to call the police when her cell phone rang.

Shari picked up Tia's phone and answered it. "h.e.l.lo?"

"I have something to tell you," Homer said.

"Who is this?" Shari asked as Tia looked up quickly.

Homer hesitated before answering. "Who is this?"

Tia heard the familiar low pitch of the voice echoing from the phone. She grabbed the phone from Shari. "I thought I asked you not to call me anymore," she said impatiently.

"Okay if that's how you want it. It's about your daughter but never mind. Good-bye." Homer smiled. This time he had hung up on her.

A feeling of dread swept through Tia's veins. "My daughter? h.e.l.lo?" she yelled frantically. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Who was that?" Shari asked.

"Homer," Tia said as she tried to call him back. He had blocked his number before calling her so she began frantically searching for his number in her contacts list, forgetting that she had completely deleted him from her phone book.

"Homer?" Shari's forehead creased. She looked at Tony. "Who's Homer?"

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Our next-door neighbor," he said.

Just then Tia's phone rang again.

"Where's my daughter?" she screamed into the phone.

"When can I see you?" Homer asked calmly.

"What are you talking about?" she yelled. "If you know something about my daughter, you better tell me right now or I'm calling the police!"

"Meet me at the motel and I'll tell you."

"I'm not meeting you anywhere. I'm calling the police!"

"Call them," he said. "But I don't know anything about your daughter."

"Then why did you mention her name?" Tia asked as she choked back the emotions that threatened to send her into a fit of hysteria.

"Did I?" Homer asked. Then the line went dead.

Shari sat through the whole interaction with her mouth hanging open. Finally, she spoke. "Tia, what's going?"

"He knows something about Serenity," she said. Her hands were shaking so bad she could barely hold the phone steady while she called 9-1-1.

"Why would he have anything to do with Serenity?" Shari asked.

"Operator," Tia said staring hard at Shari, "I need the police." She turned her back to Shari and Tony and continued. "My daughter hasn't come home, and I think my neighbor might be involved."

Shari's eyes grew wide. Her mouth opened again, but this time no words came out. Now she understood what was going on. She looked at her daughter who sat listening to it all. "Cookie," she said, "go in the other room. I'll be in there in a minute."

As Cookie walked out of the living room, she noticed Serenity's h.e.l.lo Kitty hat sitting on the desk in the hallway. She picked it up and returned to the living room. "Ma," she said holding the hat.

"What did your mother tell you to do, Cookie?" Tony said sternly.

"But it's her hat," Cookie said holding it up. "She said she was going to wear this hat when she went to meet him."

Tony grabbed the hat from Cookie.

Tia was still on the telephone. "And why do you think your neighbor is involved, ma'am?" the 9-1-1 dispatcher asked.

"Because he just called me and said he had something to tell me about my daughter. But he hung up when I said I wouldn't meet him."

"Wait. So your neighbor asked you to meet him somewhere?"

"Yes! Yes! Why are you asking all these questions? Can you just send someone over to check his house?"

"Well, ma'am, we have to get as much information as we can. Has he ever threatened your daughter before?"

"No," Tia said as she began weeping. "No. I told him I didn't want him to call me anymore, and that's when he told me he knew something about my daughter."

"Okay, ma'am. What is your neighbor's name and address?"

After Tia had given Homer's name and address to the 9-1-1 operator, she was told a squad car would be dispatched to his address as well as hers. She hung up the phone, and Shari touched her shoulder.

"Tia, is that the man you've been-"

"I don't want to hear it," she said jerking her shoulder away from Shari's touch. "Not now, Shari. I already know I've made a mistake. And I'm telling you, now is not the time for you to remind me of that."

"I wasn't going to," Shari said. "What can we do?"

"You can not judge me," Tia said rocking back and forth. "That's what both of you can do!"

"We're not here to judge you," Tony said. "Like you said, this is not the time." He held up the h.e.l.lo Kitty hat. "Cookie just gave me Serenity's hat. She said Serenity was going to wear it when she met the boy."