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“Why not?” Lexington asked quietly.

I laughed lightly to myself—a laugh without humor, bearing the weight of years of trauma. “I was terrified. The person who had hurt my parents was still out there. It was a can of worms I wasn’t ready to open, and until I was eighteen, I wanted to stay under the radar. My brother was trying to take custody of me, but that would have taken me from everything I knew. Once I turned eighteen and it was safe to share my real name, I was just Goldie. My past was behind me, where I wanted it.”

“But you couldn’t let it go?”

I shook my head. “Would you? I always wanted to know what happened to my parents, so I set up a Google alert for the town so that if any news came out, I would know.”

“Is that how you found out about this case in the first place?” Lexington asked. “It was nowhere in the news; I could never figure out how you found it.”

I nodded. “I get an email every time the town is mentioned online. It’s rare and usually nothing of consequence. But I got this one—about the notes. I thought maybe…” I trailed off.

“You thought you could find out what happened? Who was doing this all this time?” Lexington asked.

I turned to him and nodded. “I heard my mom and dad die just a room away. I loved them; I still love them. I wanted to finally get the answers to what happened to them.”

“So Father—the man,” Silas corrected himself, “do you think he found you again when you came to investigate it all?”

I shrugged. “Probably. I’m the only adult he has ever taken, so I don’t think it’s just a coincidence. They have this big festival there. I assume he saw me there.” I pointed to the picture of my little family. “I look similar enough to my mom that if he remembered her face, he would be able to place who I was.”

“Do you think it was you?” Silas asked.

I tilted my head in question.

“The one he was trying to replace. Was it you?” he clarified. I shrugged, because I didn’t know; I had no way to know.

“He never hurt anyone the way he did you,” Silas continued, and I heard Lexington’s strangled sound in the back of his throat. “I always wondered why. Maybe because it was always supposed to be you he was going to take.”

“Maybe,” I conceded. “But I think it’s more because I was an adult. He didn’t want to hurt kids like that.”

Silas was quiet for a moment and nodded to himself. “He had started to get different with me the older I got. Do you think he would have hurt me the same way?”

I closed my eyes as I tried to hide the hurt in my heart. While Silas was close to adulthood, he was so innocent in so many ways. I wanted to speak, but I wasn’t sure how. I felt Lexington’s fingers intertwine with mine as he leaned forward, closing the space between us, his warmth spreading through me.

It was the low timbre of his voice as he spoke to Silas that made me reopen my eyes. “Maybe, but I don’t think you need to dwell on that. You got out, Silas. You have your whole life in front of you. Let’s focus on finding this man to stop him so that life can be free—no need to ponder the what-ifs. Not yet, at least.”

Silas nodded, accepting his answer, and turned back to his notebook, scribbling notes in it.

I turned to Lexington and mouthed a silent thank you. He just smiled back—a sad smile full of grief. I knew hearing what had happened to me hurt him, too, in different ways, but it was there.

But that hurt was easier to bear with him by my side. He made me remember that I, too, had so much life in front of me, and maybe… just maybe, it could be free from the shackles of my past.

Lexington

It wasn’t Goldie’s nightmares that awoke me this time. It was the sudden, heavy silence beside me.

I opened my eyes to total darkness, the air in the room instantly feeling too thin. I reached across the mattress, but my hand met only cold, empty sheets. Since she’d regained her memory, I spent every night wrapped around her. We hadn't labeled what we were, but I needed her close to breathe.

And right now, she was gone.

I leapt out of bed, the blankets pooling at my feet as I slapped the light switch frantically as I looked around the room for her. Empty.

Panic surged through my veins, hot and blinding. Not again. I tore down the hall, checking River’s room first—the terror of her abductor returning making my blood run cold. I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw River sound asleep, his stuffed alligator wrapped in his arms and his blanket pulled to his chin.

I spun back into the hallway, sprinting through the living room and flicking on lights as I went. I checked out the front windows; the patrol car was still sitting on the curb, undisturbed. If someone had taken her, they hadn't gone through the front door or any windows in sight of the officers.

I had promised to protect her, to keep her safe, and I’d slept right through her vanishing.

I was about to lose my mind when a loud, violent crack shattered the silence from the backyard. Before I could breathe, I was running through the living room and into the kitchen. I threw open the back door the moment I reached it and scanned the yard for the source of the noise.