Page 1

PROLOGUE

Rainwater drips from the lapels of my jacket, creating a mess on the floor.

The air-conditioning inside my empty house is on full blast, suctioning my damp clothes to my body, raising a flock of goosebumps across my skin. I’d be freezing, if it weren’t for the adrenaline coursing through me, hot and angry.

I’ve had no sleep. No food or water. I should get out of these soggy clothes before I get sick, and yet, all I can do is march into the living room and turn on the television, hungry for more information, desperate for this situation to not be real.

I swipe through the endless array of icons, searching for the live feed from a local station.

There it is. The morning news. A bright-eyed news anchor in a bright orange blazer sits behind a gleaming desk. It all looks so civilized and controlled, even as she delivers the worst news imaginable.

“Breaking early this morning,” she says, her face expressing the ideal combination of worry and intrigue, “a thirteen-year-old Manning girl has been reported missing.”

My thoughts fade away as she rattles off important details—her name, her last known location, her physical description—replaced entirely by one dreadful realization:

This is real. It’s all happening.

Part of me had hoped I’d return home, and everything would turn out to be a misunderstanding, easily corrected, but that’s never the case, is it? When tragedy strikes, there’s only before and after.

Before I started keeping secrets. Before I made so many mistakes. Before I failed to protect her.

And now this. Unrelenting guilt and worry and fear over what comes next.

The news anchor continues, “Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Manning Police Department?—”

I click a button, and the screen zaps to black, as another horrifying realization sets in:

This is all my fault.