Chapter 1
The sound of my husband's suitcase rolling across our living room floor was the cruelest sound I had ever heard.
Three months.
Marcus had been gone for three months.
And now he was standing in our doorway as though he had simply returned from a business trip.
Behind him stood Vanessa.
The woman who had helped destroy our marriage.
I slammed the front door so hard that Vanessa jumped.
Marcus stopped walking.
"Nia, what the hell is wrong with you?"
I stared at him.
I hadn't slept properly in six days. My hands were shaking, my eyes were swollen, and the tissues in my fist were soaked with tears.
But he was worried about my attitude.
I threw the tissues onto the coffee table.
"You finally decided to come home?"
Marcus frowned.
"Don't start this again."
"After what you said to our eight-year-old daughter?"
Something shifted in his expression.
Not guilt.
Annoyance.
"Nia, I'm not doing this right now."
"You don't get to decide that!"
Vanessa moved behind him, gripping the handle of her suitcase.
"Maybe I should wait outside."
"Maybe you should have stayed away from my family entirely," I snapped.
Marcus immediately turned toward her.
"Don't let her talk to you like that."
I almost laughed.
He could protect Vanessa from a few angry words.
But he couldn't answer his own daughter's phone calls.
"Marcus, do you remember the last time Lily called you?"
His jaw tightened.
"Of course."
"What did she say?"
He looked away.
"She was upset. She kept calling while I was busy."
"Busy doing what?"
"Nia."
"Busy sleeping beside another woman?"
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
"I told Lily to stop calling me. I needed space."
The words hit me all over again.
I had heard them before.
But somehow hearing him say them now was worse.
Because there was no regret in his voice.
Only irritation.
"She called you because she was scared."
He sighed.
"She's eight. Kids get scared."
I felt something inside me break.
"She wasn't scared of the dark, Marcus."
His expression changed.
"What does that mean?"
Before I could answer, three sharp knocks came from the front door.
Marcus looked toward it.
"Who is that?"
I couldn't speak.
My knees were trembling.
I had been waiting for this moment.
Dreading it.
I opened the door.
Officer Bennett stood on our porch.
He had been coming to my house every day since Lily disappeared.
Today, however, he wasn't carrying his usual notebook.
He was holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small purple phone.
Lily's phone.
The one with the cracked corner and the butterfly sticker she had chosen herself.
My breath caught.
Marcus stared at it.
"What's going on?"
Officer Bennett stepped inside.
"Mr. Bennett, we recovered your daughter's phone."
Marcus looked from the officer to me.
"Recovered?"
No one answered.
He took a step forward.
"Where's Lily?"
I covered my mouth.
Vanessa's suitcase slipped from her hand.
Marcus looked at me again.
"Nia, where is our daughter?"
The question was almost unbearable.
Six days ago, I had been the one asking him that.
Six days ago, his phone had gone straight to voicemail.
Six days ago, I had screamed his name into a phone while police officers searched our neighborhood.
And Marcus had never answered.
Officer Bennett placed the evidence bag on the table.
"We need to ask you some questions."
Marcus shook his head.
"Not until someone tells me where my daughter is."
I wiped my face.
"She went missing six nights ago."
The room fell silent.
Marcus blinked.
"What?"
"She disappeared, Marcus."
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
I watched the color drain from his face.
"No. That's not possible."
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to hit him.
I wanted him to feel even one second of the terror I had lived with.
Instead, I whispered, "I called you twenty-three times."
He pulled out his phone.
His fingers moved frantically across the screen.
I watched him find my missed calls.
Twenty-three.
Every one unanswered.
Vanessa stepped closer.
"Marcus, I thought you said your phone was off because—"
"Not now," he snapped.
Officer Bennett raised the evidence bag.
"There's something else."
He turned Lily's phone so Marcus could see the screen.
The last message from her father was still there.
DON'T CALL ME AGAIN.
Marcus stared at those four words.
He looked as though someone had punched him in the chest.
"I didn't mean..."
I laughed bitterly.
"You didn't mean what? The words you typed? Or the pain they caused?"
He looked at me helplessly.
"She knew I loved her."
My tears spilled over.
"No, Marcus. She didn't."
He shook his head.
"Of course she did."
"Those were the last words she read from you."
His breathing changed.
He sat heavily on the sofa.
Then he looked at me.
"What did she say afterward?"
I had repeated Lily's words in my head hundreds of times.
I had heard them while brushing my teeth.
While standing in her bedroom.
While staring at the empty chair beside our kitchen table.
But saying them aloud felt like tearing open a wound.
"She asked me something."
Marcus waited.
I could barely force the words out.
"She said, 'Mommy, why doesn't Daddy want me anymore?'"
Marcus covered his face.
A terrible sound came from his throat.
He started crying.
But I couldn't comfort him.
I had spent three months comforting our daughter.
I had held her through nightmares.
I had explained why Daddy wasn't home.
I had promised that his silence didn't mean she wasn't lovable.
And still, every night, she had asked whether he would come back.
Officer Bennett waited until Marcus lowered his hands.
Then he spoke.
"Mr. Bennett, there's one final voice message you haven't heard."
Marcus looked up.
"What message?"
The officer glanced at me.
I shook my head.
I hadn't heard it either.
Until that moment, I hadn't even known it existed.
Officer Bennett removed a small tablet from his bag.
"Our technicians recovered this recording from your daughter's phone. It was created shortly before she disappeared."
Marcus gripped the edge of the sofa.
"Did she say where she was?"
"We need you both to listen carefully."
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
"Do I have to be here for this?"
Officer Bennett looked directly at her.
"Actually, Ms. Carter, we'd prefer that you stay."
Something about his tone made my stomach tighten.
Vanessa went pale.
Marcus noticed.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
But her hands were trembling.
Officer Bennett touched the tablet.
My heart began pounding.
For six days, I had begged God for any sign that my little girl was alive.
Now I was about to hear her voice.
The officer looked at me one last time.
"Mrs. Bennett, I need to warn you. This recording may change everything we thought we knew."
May you like
Then he pressed play.
And my daughter's frightened voice filled the room.
