Chapter 4
I screamed her name so loud my throat went raw.
I ran through the house, checking every room, every closet, every bathroom.
Nothing.
I ran back to her bedroom and leaned out the window.
The screen was popped out, lying in the grass below.
Her favorite sneakers were gone from the rack by the door.
The two hundred dollars she’d saved up for summer camp was missing from her jewelry box.
She’d planned this.
I grabbed my phone and called 911, my hands shaking so bad I could barely dial.
The operator tried to calm me down, but I couldn’t breathe.
My baby was gone.
Twelve years old. Alone. In a world that had just turned upside down.
The police showed up twenty minutes later.
Two uniformed officers, then a detective.
They asked me a hundred questions.
When did I last see her? Did she have a history of running away? Was there trouble at home?
I told them everything.
The fight with Sandra. The paternity test. The text to Marcus Hale.
Sandra came home while they were still there, carrying three grocery bags.
She took one look at the police cars in the driveway and dropped the bags.
Oranges rolled all over the porch.
“What’s going on?” she demanded, marching into the house. “Lila, what did you do now?”
“Ava is missing,” I said, my voice flat.
She froze for half a second.
Then her face twisted into a mask of fake horror.
“Oh my God. Oh, that poor baby.” She turned to the detective, clutching her pearls. “Detective, you have to understand. This is all her mother’s fault. Lila has been lying to my son for years about that child’s paternity. The poor girl is probably so confused and ashamed she ran away. Lila drove her to it.”
I lunged at her, but one of the officers held me back.
“YOU DID THIS!” I screamed. “You faked the test! You’ve been torturing her for weeks! She was scared to tell us because of you!”
“Lila, stop,” the detective said, holding up a hand. “Both of you, enough. We need to find Ava first. Ms. Hale—” he looked at his notes “—Marcus Hale. You said Ava was texting him. Do you have an address for him?”
I nodded, my chest heaving.
“He used to live in town. But that was twelve years ago. I don’t know where he is now.”
“Give us his full name and date of birth if you have it. We’ll run him through the system.”
I did.
Thirty minutes later, the detective came back into the living room.
He was holding a piece of paper.
“Got a hit. Marcus Hale. Lives two hours west of here, on a small farm outside Millfield. No criminal record. Works as a mechanic. Widowed three years ago, no other kids.”
He looked at me.
“Your daughter’s phone last pinged on the highway west of here, forty minutes ago. She’s heading his way.”
I was already grabbing my keys.
“I’m going after her.”
“Lila, wait.”
Daniel’s voice came from the front door.
He was standing there, pale and disheveled, his eyes red.
He’d heard the news from Sandra while he was at work.
“I’m coming with you.”
Sandra stepped forward, grabbing his arm.
“Daniel, no. You can’t go with her. She’s the reason Ava ran away. She’ll just make it worse. Let the police handle it. I’ll stay here and wait—”
He pulled his arm away from her like she’d burned him.
“No, Mom. You stay here. I’m going to find my daughter.”
He looked at me, and for the first time in three days, there was no doubt in his eyes.
Just fear.
The same fear I felt.
“Let’s go,” he said.
I nodded.
We were halfway to the truck when Sandra ran after us, her heels clicking on the pavement.
“Wait! I’m coming too.”
Daniel stopped.
“Mom, no—”
“I’m her grandmother,” she snapped, pushing past him to climb into the backseat. “I have as much right to be there as you do. And someone needs to make sure Lila doesn’t say something stupid and scare that girl even more. Now drive. We’re wasting time.”
Daniel and I exchanged a look.
We didn’t have time to argue.
Ava was out there alone.
We got in the truck.
The drive was the longest two hours of my life.
No one spoke for the first hour.
Daniel stared straight ahead, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
Sandra sat in the back, making quiet comments under her breath.
“Of course she’d run to him. Blood calls to blood. She always was too wild for our family. Just like her real father.”
“Marcus was a good guy,” I said, not turning around.
She laughed.
“Good guy? He was a drifter. No money, no future. Just like you. You two were perfect for each other. Shame you had to drag my son into your mess.”
“Mom, shut up,” Daniel said, his voice low.
She did.
For ten minutes.
Then she leaned forward, her voice soft, like she was sharing a secret.
“You know, Daniel, if she’d just told you the truth back then, none of this would’ve happened. She knew. She always knew. She just wanted your money—”
“I DIDN’T KNOW!” I yelled, turning around in my seat. “And if you say that one more time, I’m gonna kick you out of this truck and leave you on the side of the highway, I swear to God.”
She smirked.
“Touchy, aren’t we? Guilty conscience?”
“Both of you, STOP!” Daniel slammed his hand on the steering wheel. The truck swerved a little. “Ava is out there alone. She’s twelve years old. She doesn’t know this man. She has no idea what he’s like. And you two are sitting here fighting like children. Grow up. Both of you.”
Silence fell again.
Thicker this time.
Thirty minutes outside Millfield, we stopped at a diner for gas and coffee.
Daniel and I stood by the pumps, away from Sandra.
He looked at me, his eyes wet.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For the last three days. For listening to her. For doubting you.”
I reached out and touched his arm.
“It’s okay,” I said. “She’s good at what she does. She’s been manipulating you your whole life.”
He shook his head.
“No. It’s not okay. I should’ve known better. I should’ve seen she was lying. Ava is my kid. I don’t care what some stupid test says. I changed her diapers. I taught her to ride a bike. I stayed up with her when she had the flu. That’s my daughter. Nothing is ever gonna change that.”
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“I just… when she said those words at dinner. I felt like the ground fell out from under me. Like everything I knew was a lie. And Mom was there, telling me exactly what I wanted to hear. That it wasn’t my fault. That you were the bad guy. It was easier to believe her than to face the fact that my own mother had been lying to me for twelve years.”
I pulled him into a hug.
He held me tight, like he was scared I’d disappear too.
“We’re gonna find her,” I said. “And we’re gonna fix this. All of it.”
He nodded against my shoulder.
Then we got back in the truck and kept driving.
The farm was at the end of a long dirt road, surrounded by cornfields.
It was small, white, with a red barn and a porch swing.
Ava’s backpack was sitting on the porch steps.
My heart leaped into my throat.
We jumped out of the truck and ran up the stairs.
Daniel banged on the door so hard the windows rattled.
It opened a second later.
Marcus Hale stood there.
He was older than I remembered, a little gray at the temples, a scar across his left cheek.
He was holding a mug of coffee.
He looked at Daniel, then at me, then at Sandra in the background.
His eyes went wide.
“Lila?” he said. “What are you doing here?”
Then he looked past us, toward the porch swing.
Ava was sitting there, curled up in a blanket, her face streaked with tears.
She looked up when she heard her name.
May you like
“Dad?” she whispered, looking at Daniel.
Then she broke down crying.
