I stare at Mom. “You tell that private investigator to do better. It’s not good enough. I can only imagine how much you’re paying him. Six weeks later and there’s still no sign of her?”
When I see movement in the corner of my eye, I glance to my left to see Zara. All conversation stops. She pauses at the bottom of the stairs. She’s lost a lot of weight in a short time. It’s scary.
“Come sit, precious,” I say as I wave her over.
I want to include her in conversations around Misty’s disappearance. It’s important she talks about it.
She hesitantly wanders over. I shuffle the chair back so she can sit on my lap. I wrap my arms around her frail body and pull her to my chest.
“We were just talking about putting more pressure on the private investigator because there needs to be something that leads us to Misty.”
“You should consider the fact that she ran away,” says Mom, making Zara stiffen in my arms. “She was a free-spirited young woman who liked to break the rules.”
“I don’t think so, Audrey,” Helen replies. “She didn’t take any money out of her bank account.”
“But your camera shows Misty leaving in her car. She took her wallet with her. She could have been saving up, or maybe she met someone else.” Mom shrugs casually, like she didn’t just insult Misty.
Zara abruptly stands. “No! She loved Kane. She would never cheat on him.”
I sigh and watch Zara storm away and back up the stairs. “I’ll go to her,” I tell Helen, who has a deep frown on her face.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
I rush up the stairs and to Zara’s room to see her lying on her stomach with her arms under the pillow on which her head rests.
“Don’t listen to my mom,” I say as I sit next to her. “She doesn’t know Misty like you do.”
“There’s so many unanswered questions that I’m starting to think I didn’t know her at all...”
Her voice is without emotion. Her mood changes every day from crying to anger to numbness.
I tuck her hair behind her ear. “You don’t believe Misty would have run away, do you?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore. Are you staying tonight?”
“Ah, yeah. Sure.”
I can’t shake this overwhelming guilt. When I’m with Zara, I feel bad for leaving my brother alone. And when I’m with him, I worry about leaving Zara. I can’t be in two places at once.
I think Zara wants me with her because she’s worried that I’ll abandon her like Misty did, which is why I don’t want to go to the military. I don’t want her to leave either. We can get through this...together.
Five
Mental Torture
Zara
Age: Nineteen
One year later
A buzz echoesthroughout the small room.
“Ow!” I whine as the tattoo gun marks the top of my thigh.
Even though I’ve had some whiskey, it still burns.
“What are you getting again?” Kane slurs before he takes another gulp from his flask.
