Chapter 2
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
My brother had been missing for eleven years.
His name was Daniel.
He was twenty-two when he disappeared.
One night he had left our mother’s house after an argument and never returned.
His car was eventually found outside Macon.
His wallet was still inside.
There was no blood.
No body.
No explanation.
Our mother spent years believing he would walk through the front door again.
Rebecca had always told her to stop hoping.
Now a terrified seven-year-old boy was wearing Daniel’s necklace.
And my sister looked like she wanted to run.
“Rebecca,” I said quietly. “Where is Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
The boy grabbed my shirt tighter.
“She does.”
Rebecca glared at him.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do.”
His voice shook.
“You took him downstairs.”
My heart stopped.
“Downstairs where?”
Rebecca moved toward me.
“Emily, put your phone away.”
I had forgotten it was still in my hand.
I looked at the screen.
911 was waiting for me to press call.
Rebecca saw it too.
Her voice softened instantly.
“You’re misunderstanding this.”
“Then explain the chain.”
“He runs.”
“Explain Daniel.”
“I can’t.”
“Explain this child.”
Her jaw tightened.
The boy whispered, “My name is Noah.”
I looked down.
“Noah what?”
He swallowed.
“Noah Carter.”
Carter.
Daniel’s last name.
My last name before I married.
Rebecca turned pale.
I stared at her.
“You knew his last name?”
She said nothing.
I pressed the call button.
Rebecca lunged.
She knocked the phone from my hand.
It hit the grass.
I shoved her back.
“What is wrong with you?”
“Don’t call them!”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll ruin everything.”
I looked at the boy chained to the fence.
“They should.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
The anger disappeared.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Not afraid of me.
Afraid of something else.
She leaned close.
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
I stared at her.
“Is that supposed to scare me?”
“It should.”
A noise came from inside the house.
A heavy thud.
Noah flinched.
Rebecca looked toward the back door.
So did I.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Another thud.
This time louder.
Noah whispered, “That’s him.”
Every hair on my arms rose.
“Daniel?”
Noah nodded.
Rebecca grabbed my wrist.
“Emily, listen to me.”
I ripped my arm away.
“You kept our brother here?”
“It isn’t what you think.”
“You chained his child outside!”
“He’s not safe!”
“Who isn’t safe?”
“Daniel!”
The answer hit me harder than anything else she had said.
I stepped back.
“What happened to him?”
Rebecca looked at Noah.
“Go inside.”
Noah immediately shook his head.
“No.”
“You heard me.”
“I’m staying with Emily.”
The fact that he knew my name startled me.
I looked at him.
“How do you know who I am?”
Noah reached beneath his shirt.
There was something else hanging from the necklace.
A tiny plastic sleeve.
Inside was an old photograph.
I recognized it immediately.
Me.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
We were teenagers, standing beside our mother at Stone Mountain.
I remembered the day.
I remembered Daniel refusing to smile until Mom threatened to tickle him.
Noah pointed at me in the picture.
“Dad said if I ever found you, you would help us.”
I could barely breathe.
Rebecca whispered, “He shouldn’t have told you that.”
I turned on her.
“How long has Daniel been here?”
She looked away.
“How long?”
“Six months.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Six months.
My brother had been alive less than thirty miles from me for half a year.
I had spent birthdays wondering where he was.
Christmases watching Mom set an extra plate she pretended was accidental.
Every unknown number made my stomach drop.
And Rebecca knew.
“You let Mom believe he was dead.”
“She was better off.”
I slapped Rebecca.
The sound cracked through the backyard.
She stared at me.
I had never hit my sister before.
Not as children.
Not even during the worst fights of our lives.
But I didn’t regret it.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Rebecca touched her cheek.
“You have no idea what Daniel became.”
“Then show me.”
“No.”
“Show me my brother.”
“No, Emily.”
I stepped toward the house.
She blocked me.
“Move.”
“I can’t.”
“Move.”
“He’ll tell you things.”
The words stopped me.
“What things?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears.
For a second, she looked like my sister again.
The girl who used to crawl into my bed during thunderstorms.
The woman who cried at my wedding.
The sister I thought I knew.
Then Noah said something that changed everything.
“She made Dad promise not to tell you about Grandma.”
I looked at him.
“Grandma?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Noah.”
“What about Mom?” I demanded.
Rebecca whispered, “Please.”
“WHAT ABOUT MOM?”
A door slammed inside the house.
Then came footsteps.
Slow.
Uneven.
Dragging across the floor.
Rebecca turned toward the patio.
Her face drained of color.
“No.”
Noah stood up as far as the chain allowed.
“Dad!”
A man appeared behind the glass back door.
My brain refused to understand what I was seeing.
He was thin.
Too thin.
His beard was long and uneven.
His hair reached his shoulders.
There was a dark bruise beneath one eye.
But I knew him.
I knew the shape of his face.
I knew the scar above his eyebrow from when he fell off his bike at twelve.
I knew my brother.
“Daniel?”
His hand pressed against the glass.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Em?”
My legs moved before my mind did.
I ran toward him.
Rebecca grabbed me from behind.
“No!”
I twisted around.
“Let go of me!”
“You can’t go inside!”
Daniel began pounding weakly on the glass.
Noah cried out.
“Dad!”
I shoved Rebecca hard enough that she stumbled.
I reached the door.
Locked.
“Daniel!”
He pointed downward.
At the handle.
Then toward Rebecca.
“She has the key.”
I turned.
Rebecca was already moving backward.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Rebecca.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Give me the key.”
She suddenly ran.
I chased her across the yard.
She made it three steps before Noah’s chain caught around her ankle.
Rebecca fell hard onto the grass.
A ring of keys flew from her pocket.
I grabbed them.
“Emily, stop!”
I ran to the patio.
The first key didn’t fit.
Neither did the second.
Daniel stood on the other side, shaking.
“Third one.”
I tried it.
Click.
I pulled the door open.
Daniel almost fell into me.
I caught him.
For eleven years I had imagined this moment.
I thought I would scream.
Cry.
Ask a thousand questions.
Instead, I held my brother.
And he whispered into my ear.
“You have to get Noah away from her before Mom finds out we’re alive.”
I pulled back.
“What?”
May you like
Daniel looked terrified.
“Mom is the reason I disappeared.”
