Chapter 8
Dad shouted Lily’s name until his voice broke.
I stood frozen on the patio, staring at the pink ribbon.
My little sister’s ribbon.
The one Sarah had tied into her hair that morning because Lily asked her to.
“I want Ethan’s mommy to do it,” she had said shyly.
Sarah cried afterward in the laundry room.
Now the ribbon hung from the gate like a warning.
Dad called 911.
Claire ran down the street.
Sarah grabbed me and pulled me inside.
I fought her.
“No! Lily!”
“I know,” Sarah said, voice shaking. “But I am not losing you too.”
Those words stopped me.
Through the window, I watched Dad search the bushes, the driveway, the sidewalk.
Police arrived in minutes.
Neighbors came out.
Detective Harris took the ribbon with gloves.
He crouched in front of me.
“Ethan, did you see anything?”
I shook my head.
Then I remembered.
“A white van.”
Everyone turned.
“I heard it,” I said. “When Lily laughed. There was a door sliding.”
Dad knelt.
“Where?”
“By the alley.”
Officer Grant ran.
Dad started after him, but Detective Harris caught his arm.
“Daniel, don’t.”
Dad looked like a man being held back from fire.
“That’s my daughter.”
“And if you run blind, you may miss her.”
Sarah held my shoulders.
I closed my eyes.
I tried to remember.
The chalk scraping.
Lily humming.
A van door.
A woman’s voice.
Soft.
“Lily, sweetheart.”
My eyes snapped open.
“It was Amanda.”
Dad went still.
Detective Harris’s jaw tightened.
“She violated the order.”
I shook my head.
“No. There was another voice.”
“Vivian?” Sarah asked.
I listened to the memory.
Cold perfume.
Sharp voice.
“No,” I whispered. “A man.”
Police found footage from a neighbor’s doorbell camera.
A white van stopped near the alley.
Amanda stepped out.
Lily ran toward her.
Not because she trusted her completely.
Because she was six.
Because she missed her mother.
Because love is dangerous when mixed with fear.
Then a man grabbed Lily from behind and shoved her into the van.
Amanda screamed.
She tried to pull him back.
He hit her.
She fell.
The van drove away.
Dad watched the video once.
Then again.
Amanda had not taken Lily.
She had lured her, maybe.
But then someone else took her.
Detective Harris found Amanda two blocks away, hiding behind a closed gas station, bleeding from her lip.
She was shaking so hard she could barely speak.
“He took her,” she sobbed. “He took my baby.”
“Who?” Dad demanded.
Amanda looked at Sarah.
Then at me.
Then whispered, “Vivian’s brother. Paul.”
Sarah went pale.
Ms. Romero knew the name.
Paul Vance.
Vivian’s brother.
Former private investigator.
The man who had helped create fake documents after Sarah disappeared.
Amanda cried.
“I thought Vivian was going to help me talk to Lily. I didn’t know Paul would grab her. I swear.”
Dad’s voice was ice.
“You brought our daughter to the gate.”
Amanda sobbed.
“I just wanted her to choose me.”
Claire snapped, “She is six!”
Amanda covered her face.
For the first time, she looked like she understood the size of what she had done.
But understanding did not bring Lily back.
Police issued an Amber Alert.
Dad gave them every photo.
Lily smiling with missing front teeth.
Lily in a yellow raincoat.
Lily holding my hand at the zoo.
I sat on the stairs holding her stuffed rabbit.
Sarah sat beside me.
“She’ll be scared,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Will she think we didn’t look?”
Sarah’s face crumpled.
“No. And when we find her, we will tell her every second was searching.”
Amanda was taken into custody for violating the order and child endangerment.
Before they put her in the police car, she looked at Dad.
“Find her,” she begged.
Dad said, “I will.”
Then she looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I did not answer.
Not because I hated her.
Because Lily was gone.
Sorry was too small.
That night, Detective Harris found Paul’s safe house through a toll camera.
An old farmhouse two counties away.
Police prepared a raid.
Dad was told to stay home.
He did not.
Neither did Sarah.
Claire stayed with me because everyone said it was safer.
I screamed until my throat hurt.
“I’m her brother!”
Dad crouched in front of me.
“Yes,” he said, crying. “And I need you safe when I bring her home.”
The waiting was worse than hunger.
Worse than the laundry room.
Worse than Amanda’s words.
Every minute stretched.
At 2:16 a.m., Dad called.
Claire answered on speaker.
I heard sirens.
Rain.
Dad breathing hard.
Then a small voice.
“Ethan?”
I fell to the floor.
“Lily!”
She began crying.
“I wanted to come back.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry I went to Mom.”
“No,” I sobbed. “No, no, no. I love you.”
Dad’s voice broke.
“We got her.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Sarah sobbed beside me.
Then Dad said, “Paul is in custody. But Vivian wasn’t here.”
May you like
My relief cracked.
The nightmare was not over.
