scared of everything. And now, well, I was about to leave for work, but she hadn’t come out of her room. So, I went in to say goodbye, but she wasn’t there. Her bed was empty. I searched the house and the yard outside, but she’s not here.”
I sat down in the rocking chair behind me, where I usually sat with the babies when they woke up at night, trying to get them back to sleep. I cupped my mouth.
“She has disappeared again?”
“It would appear so, yes. Please, help me find her. I’m worried something bad has happened to her again. What if that person came back for her?”
I nodded, understanding his worry. “Was there any sign of forced entry?”
“Not that I can see, no. But the back door was left unlocked. I don’t know if she left that way or if we forgot to lock it, and this person came in through there and took her again. Please, help me find her, will you? I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Chapter 60
I left the babies safely—at least I hoped so—in the hands of my family, my grandmother and dad, then told them I would only be gone for a few hours. I left, guilt nagging once again in the pit of my stomach, and drove toward Winter Park. I didn’t say anything to Matt about me leaving. I didn’t want him to tell me that I could just say no when he knew perfectly well that wasn’t an option for me. I had gotten myself involved in this strange story and couldn’t just let it go now. I knew he wouldn’t understand. Besides, he didn’t have to know. He was gone all day, and I would be back before he was off from work. I stopped at a Seven-Eleven to get myself some coffee and a soda, then continued toward Orlando while wondering—and worrying deeply—about this news.
Sarah had disappeared again. Was this woman just a master of vanishing dramatically, or had something happened to her? She had told her brother she was kidnapped and held against her will. If that was true, then had this person come for her again? Was this person determined to finish her off?
Or was something else entirely going on?
I needed to know. I needed to get to the bottom of this story before I could let it go. I would keep digging until my fingers bled before giving up. It would end up haunting me if I hadn’t done everything in my power to help her.
I just wished Matt would understand that about me.
I speculated if I should tell Scott about Bryan’s call, but something made me not call him. Was it because of the kiss we had shared? Or was it that I feared he had played me all along and maybe come back to hurt Sarah? He had surprised me many times over, and I had to admit, I found it hard to trust him. He had never offered me any explanation as to why he was stalking that girl, Lily. It was creepy to me, and along with the other stuff that had been revealed about him lately, I could no longer deny that I felt like I had to be careful with him. I mean, he seemed to have an explanation for everything. Hannah had made it up, Sarah had fallen by accident, and Lily had misunderstood his intentions on the bridge. But that didn’t explain why he kept stalking her? Why didn’t he try to explain that to me?
And then, of course, there was the kiss we had shared. I guess I didn’t really want to face him after that.
I parked in front of the old home on Howell Branch Road, then walked through the long front yard, up to the porch. Some of the grass and leaves had turned brown due to the lack of rain. It had been an unusually dry winter this year. Yet the yard still looked impeccable.
Bryan opened the door when I knocked. He seemed out of breath, agitated, and he was sweating heavily.
“Can I come in?”
He let me, and I walked inside.
“Did she sleep in here?”
He nodded, and I walked into the bedroom. The bed was made, and it didn’t look like it had been slept in at all. She could have been gone already last night for all we knew. It would be no use to go out searching for her. She could be far gone already.
“I left everything the way