You’re wondering how I know about all this, I bet.
Did you know that when a child is brought up in the foster system, they are subjected to genetic testing if potential parents request it? Color me surprised when I matched with a bouncing baby girl as her uncle years ago.
I assure you, she’s been a blessing to raise here in Windermere.
Now for the really good stuff!
I’m giving you a second chance to be in your daughter’s life. While we both know you don’t deserve it, I’d never willingly keep a mother from her child.
You once said in one of your podcast episodes that it’d be impossible to keep a child safe if a real-life murderer were out to get you. Did you not?
Well, Capri, it’s time to put that to the ultimate test.
Find your child. Keep her safe. Deliver her to Windermere alive before you’re killed first by the person I’ve hired to hunt you down.
Easy enough, right?
Fail, and you’ll lose more than just your life.
You’ll lose her. You’ll lose Lee. You’ll lose your friends.
Everyone is relying on you, Capri. For their fate rests solely on your shoulders.
Good luck, and welcome to the family,
— A. M. Pierce
Numbness floods my body as I reread the letter. How is this possible? How does he have my daughter? And he’s been raising her? Here, at Windermere?
Whatever game this man thinks he’s playing, he’s not going to win.
Nothing will stop me from killing him if he harms a single hair on any of their heads.
My daughter is here—and I don’t even know her name.
This isn’t the life I envisaged for her. She wasn’t supposed to grow up like this. She was supposed to be loved and cherished by the couple I had chosen for her.
What did Pierce do to make them surrender her to him? I had never met a couple who wanted to be parents as severely as the Johnson family. Surely they wouldn’t have given her up without a fight.
I thought having a closed adoption would be the easiest for us all. But what if I was wrong?
What if they tried to get a hold of me after I handed her over because Pierce was coming after them?
What if I could have stopped him from taking her?
What if he killed them?
Terror like I’ve never known threatens to cripple me as I shove the letter into my pocket, the lingering after effects of the drugs still filtering their way through my nervous system.
But I don’t have time to be weak right now.
My heart pounds ferociously in my chest as a feeling of protectiveness seeps into my every pore. I clear my mind of everything but her—my daughter. I have to find her before someone else does.
Taking one last shuddering breath, I pray with everything in my soul that she’s safe, while hoping Lee and my friends will understand that I have to choose her safety first, even if it jeopardizes theirs.
I unzip the tent’s door and step into the wild, the air heavy with the scent of burning wood and pine.
The first thing I notice is the semi-circle of matching tents before me with a roaring fire in the pit in the center.
