Page 47

Finally, Silas nodded and turned on his heel, walking with purpose to the kitchen. I followed behind him, and when we finally made it in, he turned and handed me the lantern. I held it up for him, lighting his way as he dragged a chair to the chimney of the small stove. He stepped onto it, balancing as he reached above him to where the ceiling met the chimney. He took the chimney in both hands and pulled up, dislodging it from the stove. I watched in awe as he jumped down from the chair, taking the chimney with him and pulling it from its hole and into the room around us. Dirt was knocked loose as the chimney was pulled through the hole. He backed up, and finally, the chimney fell free. I ran to the now-exposed hole, raising the lantern up to the revealed tunnel.

Stars.

There were stars, small and far, but I could see them glittering in the sky.

I turned to Silas, a smile reaching ear to ear, tears falling from my face. “I know how to get us out of here.”

Lexington

Isat at the conference room table, my leg shaking underneath me as I stared at the screen in front of me. In the two months since Goldie had disappeared, we hadn’t had a single lead. No one knew where she had gone, but I knew she had to be out there. I could feel it in my bones. I glanced out the windows at the stars above. It was another full moon tonight, and stars glittered in the sky. I prayed Goldie was seeing these same stars.

It was three in the morning, and I still didn’t feel tired. I was running on fumes, but had been ever since Fai announced he had found Goldie’s brother. He didn’t have any information on where she had gone, but agreed to hop on a video call with us. While Monroe would not have answers as to where Goldie was, he was still someone new to help us look who had a fresh perspective. We still weren’t sure why the two weren’t close, but I was grateful he was willing to speak with us.

He lived on the other side of the country, in South Carolina. He was married with two kids, and his husband promised to keep an eye on their children while we talked. He didn’t want his kids in the chaos. I was choosing not to feel that too deeply, as River was currently asleep in my office. I still couldn’t be apart from him for long. I was doing better at letting go of the reins during the day, but at night… well, I needed him close. He was wrapped up in blankets on my office couch in his footie pajamas, his stuffed alligator wrapped in his arms.

I could breathe easier knowing he was close.

We all sat in the conference room, the laptop angled in front of Fai, but the screen mirrored on a nearby TV hanging on the wall. We were working around Monroe’s schedule, and he was dialing in before work. The air was thick as we waited, and not one of us spoke a word. We were exhausted, physically and emotionally. There had been no progress in the search for Goldie, and every day we went without finding her, it was less likely we ever would.

Finally, the screen changed as Monroe joined the meeting, and the moment his camera turned on, my stomach dropped.

He was the closest thing to Goldie I had ever seen. Their eyes were the same matching brown, so dark they were almost black. His black hair was long and braided down his back. But it was that fire in his eyes—the same one that burned in Goldie—that would have brought me to my knees if I had been standing.

“Holy shit,” Oliver murmured, having the same thought I did.

Jackie shot us both a wide-eyed look and mouthed, “They’re like twins.”

I cleared my throat as Monroe stared expectantly into the camera. “I’m Lexington Bosede,” I greeted. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us. We… we need all the help we can get to find your sister.”

“Anything I can do to help. I appreciate you all tracking me down.” His tone was sincere, and I thought I saw remorse in his gaze.

“Can I ask why we didn’t know about you until now?” I asked, not stopping for pleasantries.

He sighed. “It’s my own fault. I was eighteen when we lost our parents. I didn’t think I was ready to take care of her and so I let her go live with our uncle. She was, rightfully so, resentful. I… I haven’t seen her since. She was around seven.”

Fai stared at him with wide eyes. “Did you even try?” His tone was accusatory, and I didn’t blame him. Goldie was his family, and this man who claimed to be her brother had abandoned her. I couldn’t fathom Oliver leaving me on my own for any reason, especially if our parents had passed.

Monroe cast his gaze down. “I was a stupid kid. No one is more remorseful for my actions than I am… I didn’t know how to handle my parents' deaths, especially how they died, and the way it messed her up. I didn’t think I was equipped to handle it all, and I ran. I-I ran and I left her.” He swallowed hard and finally looked back up, unshed tears hanging in his eyes. “When she was fifteen, I tried to make it right. I petitioned the state for custody from my uncle, but you know her… she isn’t going to do anything she doesn’t want to.” He laughed to himself. “The girl ran away from my uncle’s. I didn’t know where she went, and my uncle refused to tell me, either.”

“Fifteen?” Fai clarified. Monroe nodded in confirmation. “She ran to us. We took her in then.”

“She’s been with us since,” Oliver interjected.

Monroe looked at the camera in surprise. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how close you were. On the phone you said you worked with her… I’m so sorry she’s gone.”

“You mentioned how your parents' deaths messed her up,” I interjected, not willing to take his apology. He hadn’t seen her in twenty years; he didn’t understand the pain her absence left us with. “What do you mean?”

He looked surprised. “You don’t know?”

I shook my head, “She’s never talked about them.”

Monroe swallowed hard and spoke, “I was already at college, but someone broke into the house. Whoever it was, they killed our parents in their beds while they slept. The officers said that they thought whoever it was went after her… but they couldn’t find her in the house.” He swallowed hard. “She was hiding in the laundry basket when they finally found her. She had been having nightmares after I left for college and wasn’t sleeping well. They think she saw the person who killed them and hid. After the man… she said it was a man… after he left our parents' room to find her, she crawled into her laundry basket and hid under the pile of clothes. The police think it saved her life.”

“They never found who did it? Or why?” Oliver asked quietly.

Monroe shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “Where was this?”

It was all too much to be a coincidence. Monroe turned his attention to me again. “Close by my uncle’s. A small town called Cherrytree Hills.”