Chapter 5

Richard and Eleanor came back to the hospital carrying mountains of shopping bags.

The doctor, with pity in his eyes, told them Zoey was gone.

Eleanor didn't understand. What do you mean, gone? Gone where?

The bags slid out of her hands and hit the floor. She spun on her husband and started pounding on his chest.

"You did this! You did this!"

"You killed my daughter!"

Richard let her hit him. Let her sob into his shirt.

He heard her scream.

"Seven years of fertility treatments! She was the only daughter I ever had!"

"The only one—"

Something inside Richard's chest emptied out.

Had he driven his daughter to her death?

He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.

The last thing she'd said to him was a polite, distant Mr. Harrington.

Poverty teaches a child to mature. His father had drilled the words into him. Only someone who has tasted hardship will know the value of money.

Was that wrong?

Had he really been wrong all along?

The guilt closed around him like a net with no way out.

When the tears finally came, he slapped himself across the face. Again. Again.

Lila held her almost-fainting mother and said, soft as silk:

"Mom, Dad. Please don't be sad."

"Sis is gone, but you still have me. I'll take care of you from now on, I promise."

The next moment, several police officers walked into the hospital.

"Did you file the sexual assault report for Zoey Harrington?"

Richard and Eleanor rode to the precinct in a daze.

"You reported that Zoey was missing for two days."

"We pulled surveillance footage."

"Do you recognize this boy who smashed the window?"

Lila jumped in. "That's Ethan Calloway. He's my sister's… admirer."

"Everyone in our class knew he was into her."

She widened her eyes. "Do you think he was the one who assaulted her?"

Richard's face went scarlet. He started to stand—he was going to find Ethan and tear him apart—when a female officer pulled him back down.

"Keep watching."

"He only carried her to the hospital."

"What we actually want to ask about is all that blood on the floor. Did you beat Zoey?"

Eleanor watched the drops of blood on the screen—her daughter's blood—and something twisted inside her chest.

She pointed at Richard. "Him! He beat her!"

A female officer's brow furrowed. "According to the footage, you were present while he was beating her. Why didn't you stop him?"

Eleanor froze. A chill crawled up her spine.

The surveillance cut off the moment Zoey walked out of the hospital.

Lila let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Then the officer pulled up another clip.

The instant it started playing, Lila shrieked:

"That stretch—that stretch of road—the cameras are broken there! Where did you get that from?!"

The officer, a woman named Claire Whitmore, smiled coldly.

"Sweetheart. If you don't want anyone to know what you did, don't do it."

"The one thing there's never a shortage of in this world is cameras."

Lila grabbed her head and whimpered. "Mom, my head hurts. I want to go home."

Eleanor didn't answer. Lila turned and tugged at Richard's sleeve.

"Dad, can we go home? Please?"

Richard's eyes locked onto hers, dark and sharp.

"Lila. Why are you so afraid of this particular camera?"

On the screen, the three of them were searching for Zoey.

Officer Whitmore pointed at the figure walking into the frame.

"That's her. She must have seen you. She was trying to call out."

"And in the next second, she was dragged away by her attacker."

"Look at her mouth."

The footage slowed. Eleanor read the shape of her daughter's lips and clapped both hands over her own mouth.

"She's calling for me. She was calling Mom—"

"I heard her. I told you I heard her!"

"Why couldn't I just have walked two more steps!"

"Two more steps and I could have saved her!"

She remembered something. Her eyes went blood-red. She lunged and wrapped her hands around Lila's throat.

"You. You told me I was imagining it. You pulled me the other direction!"

Lila choked, gasping out between broken breaths:

"Mom—I really—didn't hear—"

Right before Lila lost consciousness, Officer Whitmore pried Eleanor's hands off her and stepped between them.

Her gaze cut into Lila like a blade.

"You didn't just hear her. You saw her."