“Lily is gone.”
The words did not make sense.
“She was with police,” Ethan said.
“She requested to use the restroom during intake at the hospital security office. Female officer outside the door. Window was sealed. When they opened it, she was gone.”
“That’s impossible,” I said.
Daniel’s jaw flexed. “There was a maintenance access panel behind the linen cabinet.”
Ethan whispered, “She escaped?”
“No,” my father said.
We all looked at him.
He tapped the photograph of Lily and Caleb Rusk.
“She was taken before she ever walked into this hospital.”
The room fell silent.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
No words.
Only a photograph.
Lily sat in the back seat of a car, face bruised, eyes wide with terror. In her lap was a folded piece of paper.
Across the paper, written in black marker, were five words:
ASK YOUR HUSBAND ABOUT NOAH.
My breath stopped.
Ethan stared at the screen.
His face did not look confused.
It looked destroyed.
“Ethan,” I said.
He closed his eyes.
And in that moment, before he spoke, I understood the most terrifying truth of the day.
There was still a secret in the room.
It had not belonged to Mrs. Whitfield.
It had belonged to him.
THE END OF PART 2