Chapter 2 - The Empty Bedroom
Lily’s room was empty.
Her favorite rabbit was gone from the bed. So was the inhaler case that usually sat on the dresser beside her night-light. The window was shut, the closet door half open, and one drawer had been pulled out too far, as if somebody had rushed.
Ryan stood in the doorway with Noah on his hip and rainwater still dripping from his field jacket onto the hardwood floor. Behind him, Vanessa kept repeating versions of the same sentence.
“She’s safe.”
“She’s fine.”
“You’re overreacting.”
Noah pulled away from Ryan’s shoulder just enough to whisper, “She put Lily in Miss Kendra’s blue car.”
Ryan looked back.
“Who’s Kendra?”
Vanessa jumped in before Noah could answer. “The babysitter from two houses over. Lily wanted to stay dry while I got Noah settled.”
“Settled where?”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened. “Ryan, lower your voice. You just put a wrench through my windshield in front of the neighbors.”
Two porch lights had already come on across the cul-de-sac in their Fayetteville subdivision. Rain pounded on the gutters. Somewhere in the dark, a dog barked once and stopped.
Ryan carried Noah into the kitchen and set him on the counter, then took his phone out with a hand that no longer shook. He called 911 and reported one child recovered, one child missing, and an attempted abduction by the children’s stepmother.
Vanessa laughed once under her breath.
“You’re calling this an abduction?”
He didn’t answer her. He kept his eyes on Noah, who was trying hard not to cry again.
When the dispatcher asked for Lily’s age, Ryan said, “Four.”
When she asked for the last confirmed sighting, Noah spoke up.
“She had on her purple rain boots. Nessa said we were going on a secret trip and not to tell Daddy.”
Vanessa snapped her head toward him. “Noah—”
Ryan cut in without raising his voice. “You don’t speak to him again unless I say so.”
Something changed in her face then. Not shame. Not fear exactly. More like the realization that the room was no longer arranged around her.
By the time patrol cars pulled up, Ryan had learned three things in quick succession.
Kendra Walsh was nineteen and had indeed babysat the kids twice.
The pink backpack in the SUV held Lily’s pajamas, two changes of clothes, and her preschool enrollment folder.
And Vanessa’s overnight bag was missing from their bedroom closet.
When Officer Morales asked where Lily was, Vanessa folded her arms across her wet trench coat and said, “With someone who actually knows how to keep her calm.”
May you like
Ryan stared at her.
“You sent my daughter away with someone, and you thought I’d let you explain that slowly?”
