Page 105 of The Maxwell Brothers

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do," Declan said. They were all paying attention. "I’ll call the police, but in the meantime, everyone is going to take three streets, and we're going to look everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Behind rocks, up in the trees, any place you wouldn't think about checking."

"I didn't look up trees and in the corners," I said.

"Doesn't matter. We'll redo the whole perimeter anyway, just to make sure we're not missing anything."

"She's not answering her phone," I said in a desperate voice. “And the locator app says her phone has no signal.”

"That's because she doesn't have it with her. I spoke to Ms. McDonald. They confiscated her phone earlier because she tried to use it during class," Declan explained.

"Great. Fucking great." I felt like lashing out at everyone. The teacher, even my family. And it wasn't fair. This wasn't their fault. It was all Nora's and my fault.

"I'm going to stay with you. Okay, Tate?" Lexi said softly, taking my hand. I nodded, flexing my fingers around hers. I needed her. "Come on, let's go. We're getting a bigger perimeter. But between the two of us, we're going to be fast," she promised.

We scoured street after street. I was growing more desperate with every bench we checked, every three we looked under, and every shop where we asked about Paisley, but no one had seen her. I grew so desperate that I even stopped random strangers, showing them pictures of my daughter. No one saw her.

"Where is she?" I shouted out in frustration. Worry was eating up at me.

"We have one more street," Lexi said, her voice strong. She interlaced our fingers, squeezing my hand.

I was going through the motions, doing everything mechanically. If I thought too much, I was going to lose it.

My phone rang when we were halfway down the street.

"It's the teacher," I said, answering right away. My throat constricted.

"She’s here. She came back," Ms. McDonald said.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Yes, yes, she's fine. She got lost on the way to the food truck and went in the opposite direction."

Relief washed over me, relaxing my stiff muscles.

“We’ll be right there,” I replied before hanging up and turning to Lexi. "They found her."

Her eyes watered. I instantly wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. She sobbed into my neck, tugging at my shirt. Her whole body was shaking.

"Oh my God. I was so worried. So worried."

I wrapped my arms around her. My brave, perfect woman. She'd held all this inside her while we were searching, all so she could be strong for me. I kept her in my arms, whispering in her ear.

"It's okay. It's all over. We found her."

"Can we wait for a bit?" she asked through sobs. “I want to calm down.”

“Sure.” I didn’t let go of her, holding her firmly in my arms and giving her all the support she needed. My phenomenal woman. I loved her so fucking much.

A few moments later, she took a step back.

Her eyes widened as she looked at my shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I sobbed all over you."

"That's okay. You're beautiful, even like that," I said, trying to cheer her up.

She half chuckled, half snorted. Then she covered her mouth with her hand and snorted again.

"Okay. Okay. I'm done, I think," she whispered before lowering her hand and drying her eyes. "Come on. Let's go."

I grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it, and then we both went toward the school. Paisley was sitting on the bench near the exit, looking around nervously, clearly realizing something was wrong because we were all here.