Not because things were suddenly okay.
But because I wasn’t carrying it by myself anymore.
Chapter 19
Claire
The call came around ten in the morning.
I was standing at the stove, stirring eggs slowly, letting them stay soft the way Brandon liked. It was our day off. One of the rare ones where our schedules lined up, where we had nowhere to be and no one to answer to. I’d planned breakfast, lunch, dinner. Nothing fancy. Just time together.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
Bill.
I answered.
“Claire,” Bill said, and his voice sounded wrong. Too fast, too loud. “Lily’s missing.”
For a second, my brain didn’t register the words. They didn’t connect to anything real.
“What?” I spoke.
“We can’t find her,” he continued, urgently. “She’s not here. We thought, is she with you? Did she come over to your house?”
The spoon slipped from my hand and clattered against the stove.
“No,” I said, and the word came out sharper than I meant it to. “No, she’s not here, she’s not with me.”
There was shouting in the background. Doors opening and closing. Panic moving through the line.
“We don’t know where she is,” Bill said. “Emma’s losing it.”
“I’m coming,” I said. “I’ll be right there.”
I hung up before he could say anything else.
For a moment, I just stood there, staring at the stove like it might tell me what to do. The eggs were starting to stick. The burner was still on.
I turned it off. Grabbed my keys. That was it. Two minutes, maybe less.
I didn’t change into clothes, didn’t even grab a jacket.
As I reached the front door, it opened.
Brandon stepped inside with two grocery bags hooked over his arms, his coat half off his shoulders. He smiled when he saw me.
“Food smells great, honey,” he said, setting the bags down. “I got everything you wanted.”
I didn’t let him continue.
I leaned in, kissed his cheek quickly, barely registering the warmth of his skin, and pulled back.
“I have to go,” I said. “Lily’s missing. I’m going to the Walkers’.”
His smile fell, confusion replacing it almost instantly.
“Missing?” he said. “What do you mean missing?”
