Chapter 8
The school went into lockdown before Ryan reached it.
Police surrounded the neighborhood.
Parents received emergency messages.
Teachers closed classroom doors.
Lily wasn’t there.
She was with Emily.
But Ryan didn’t know that until he saw police vehicles around the building.
Then he disappeared again.
This time, nobody believed he was running.
He was hunting for his daughter.
Emily heard the news and almost broke.
“I should have told the school sooner.”
“You did,” Naomi reminded her.
“They already knew Lily wasn’t attending.”
“He went there anyway.”
“Yes.”
“He thought she was there.”
Emily looked at me.
“He was going to take her.”
No one argued.
By afternoon, Ryan had become a fugitive.
Charges were being prepared for fraud, forgery, child abuse, conspiracy, and possible attempted homicide.
Dr. Pierce had already been arrested.
The facility suspended two administrators.
Vanessa entered a cooperation agreement.
But none of it mattered while Ryan was still outside.
That night, we moved.
Police didn’t want Lily at my house anymore.
Too obvious.
Naomi arranged for us to stay at a secure rental property twenty miles away.
Lily thought it was an adventure.
She carried her stuffed rabbit and asked whether the house had pancakes.
Emily smiled.
“We’ll make pancakes.”
“With strawberries?”
“Definitely.”
I watched my sister.
Eight months in confinement.
Two days reunited with her daughter.
A husband who wanted her erased.
And somehow she still found a smile when Lily looked at her.
That night, Lily fell asleep between us on the living room couch.
At midnight, Emily whispered, “James?”
“Yeah?”
“If something happens to me…”
“No.”
“Listen.”
“Nothing is happening to you.”
“Listen.”
I looked at her.
She was serious.
“If something happens, Lily stays with you.”
My throat tightened.
“Nothing will happen.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
She nodded.
Then she looked down at her daughter.
“I believed him.”
“Who?”
“Ryan.”
“For a while.”
“At the facility.”
Her voice cracked.
“When he said Lily was afraid of me.”
“You were injured.”
“I still believed him.”
“He built the lie around you.”
“I stopped asking to see her.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“For six days.”
Emily started crying silently.
“I thought maybe I was hurting her.”
“Emily.”
“What kind of mother stops asking for her child?”
“One who was being manipulated.”
“I should have known.”
“How?”
She didn’t answer.
I leaned forward.
“He had doctors telling you the same thing.”
“One doctor.”
“One doctor with authority.”
She wiped her face.
“I missed her seventh birthday.”
“Ryan caused that.”
“I missed Christmas.”
“Ryan.”
“She lost her front tooth.”
“Emily.”
She finally looked at me.
I said, “Every time you turn this against yourself, he wins again.”
That stopped her.
She inhaled slowly.
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
For the first time in days, she almost smiled.
Then a floorboard creaked upstairs.
We both froze.
There shouldn’t have been anyone upstairs.
I stood.
Emily immediately picked Lily up.
Another sound.
A door.
I reached for my phone.
Then headlights flashed through the front windows.
A vehicle pulled into the driveway.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Emily whispered, “Police?”
“No.”
The security team was parked farther down the road.
I called the officer assigned to us.
“Someone’s here.”
“Stay inside. Lock the interior door.”
Footsteps crossed the porch.
Emily backed toward the hallway with Lily.
A knock came.
Three times.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Emily?”
Patricia.
I stared through the peephole.
She stood alone.
“What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.”
Emily’s face hardened.
“How did she know where we were?”
I opened the door only after security reached the porch.
Patricia looked exhausted.
One officer searched her vehicle.
Nothing.
Emily refused to let her inside at first.
Then Patricia said, “I know where Ryan might go.”
That changed things.
Ten minutes later, she sat at the kitchen table.
Emily remained standing.
“Talk.”
Patricia gripped her purse.
“When Ryan was a child, his father had a cabin.”
“Where?”
“Near Broken Bow.”
Oklahoma.
“Why would Ryan go there?”
“Because almost no one knows it still belongs to us.”
Ross was called immediately.
Patricia gave him the address.
He started coordinating with Oklahoma authorities.
Emily crossed her arms.
“Why come here instead of calling police?”
Patricia looked at her.
“Because there is something else.”
Of course.
Always something else.
Patricia opened her purse.
She removed a small digital recorder.
“What is that?”
“Ryan gave it to me.”
“When?”
“After the crash.”
Emily stared at it.
“Why?”
“He said if police ever asked questions, I needed to remember the truth.”
I felt cold.
“What truth?”
Patricia laughed bitterly.
“His truth.”
She pressed play.
Ryan’s voice came through.
“Mom, Emily was drinking.”
Patricia’s recorded voice answered.
“I wasn’t there.”
“You know she had problems.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You saw her upset.”
“That doesn’t mean she was drinking.”
Ryan became impatient.
“I need you to remember that she called you.”
“She didn’t.”
“Mom.”
“No.”
Then silence.
Ryan spoke again.
“You have Lily.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything.”
Patricia’s face twisted as she listened to herself.
On the recording, she whispered, “Are you threatening me?”
Ryan replied, “I’m asking you to protect your granddaughter.”
The recording ended.
Emily stared at Patricia.
“You knew he was trying to build a story.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t go to police.”
“I was scared he would take Lily away from me.”
“He took Lily away from me!”
Patricia cried.
“I know!”
Lily stirred in Emily’s arms.
Emily immediately lowered her voice.
Patricia covered her face.
“I have been a coward.”
Emily said nothing.
“I believed protecting Ryan meant protecting Lily.”
“You were wrong.”
“I know.”
“You helped him.”
“I know.”
“You watched us hold a memorial for me.”
Patricia started sobbing.
“I know.”
That was the first time she didn’t defend herself.
No excuses.
No “Ryan said.”
No “I didn’t understand.”
Just truth.
Emily finally sat.
“What else?”
Patricia lowered her hands.
“Ryan came to me last week.”
“Before the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“My passport.”
“Why?”
“He said he wanted to take Lily on a vacation.”
Emily stared.
“You gave it to him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“He got angry.”
“What did he say?”
Patricia looked at Lily.
“He said after the wedding, nobody would be able to interfere anymore.”
Naomi frowned.
“What did that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Patricia hesitated.
“But he said something about Emily’s case being finished.”
Emily stiffened.
“What case?”
Patricia shook her head.
“I thought he meant your death paperwork.”
Naomi looked at me.
“Maybe not.”
Her phone rang.
Detective Ross.
She answered.
“Yes?”
We watched her face.
“What?”
Emily stood.
Naomi put the call on speaker.
Ross’s voice filled the kitchen.
“We reached the cabin.”
“Is Ryan there?” I asked.
“No.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“But someone has been there recently.”
“What did you find?”
“A laptop, food, clothes.”
Ross paused.
“And surveillance photographs.”
Emily’s face changed.
“Of who?”
“You.”
Silence.
“Taken yesterday.”
Emily looked toward the windows.
Ross continued.
“He knew the location of your house before you moved.”
“How?”
“We’re working on it.”
Patricia whispered, “Oh God.”
Ross said, “There’s something more important.”
“What?” Naomi asked.
“We found a map.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of map?”
“Dallas area.”
“And?”
Ross paused.
“Three places are marked.”
Emily grabbed the table.
“Which places?”
“Lily’s school.”
“My house?”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
“And the third?”
Ross answered.
“North Texas Pediatric Center.”
Emily frowned.
“Why?”
Patricia suddenly gasped.
We turned.
“What?”
She looked at Emily.
“That’s where Ryan takes Lily.”
Emily stared.
“For what?”
Patricia’s face went pale.
“Her therapy appointments.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed.
“What therapy?”
Patricia looked confused.
“The ones she started after you died.”
Emily’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Lily has a therapist?”
Patricia nodded.
“Every Thursday.”
Naomi checked her phone.
“What day is today?”
Thursday.
I looked at Lily sleeping against Emily.
Emily’s face changed.
“She wasn’t supposed to be with me.”
Nobody spoke.
“If court had returned her to Ryan…”
Naomi finished the thought.
“She would have had an appointment today.”
Ross’s voice came through the phone.
“We’re sending officers to the clinic.”
Then Patricia whispered something.
“What?” Emily asked.
Patricia looked terrified.
“Ryan chose the therapist.”
Emily stared at her.
“Who?”
“I don’t remember her name.”
Patricia searched her phone.
Then she found an old appointment message.
She turned the screen around.
Dr. Melissa Pierce.
I stared at it.
“Pierce?”
Naomi looked at Ross’s speaker.
“Any relation to Samuel Pierce?”
There was tapping on Ross’s end.
Then silence.
“Yes.”
Emily whispered, “What?”
Ross answered.
“His sister.”
Twenty minutes later, officers reached the clinic.
Dr. Melissa Pierce was gone.
Her office had been cleared.
Computer removed.
Files missing.
But one folder had been left behind.
Lily Carter.
Inside were therapy notes describing symptoms Lily had never had.
Aggression.
Hallucinations.
Violent behavior.
Fear of her mother.
And one recommendation dated the previous week.
Residential psychiatric placement.
Emily read it twice.
Then she understood.
Ryan wasn’t only planning to run with Lily.
He had created a backup plan.
If he couldn’t take her out of the country, he would put her somewhere he could control access.
The same way he had controlled Emily.
A second phone rang.
Patricia’s.
She looked at the screen.
Her face went white.
Ryan.
Ross told her to answer.
Patricia put the call on speaker.
“Hello?”
Ryan’s voice was calm.
“Mom.”
Patricia looked at Emily.
“Where are you?”
“You know where.”
“No, I don’t.”
Ryan laughed.
“Yes, you do.”
Patricia began shaking.
“What do you want?”
“My daughter.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Ryan continued.
“Bring Lily to me, and this ends.”
Patricia whispered, “I don’t have Lily.”
“You’re with Emily.”
Nobody breathed.
Ryan knew.
He knew where we were again.
Emily looked toward the windows.
Then Ryan said the sentence that sent every officer in the house moving.
“Tell James to stop looking out the front window.”
May you like
I stepped back.
Because I had been doing exactly that.
