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“All I’m saying is that there are certain things you don’t understand, certain angles to this that you can’t see,” Ash said, obviously striving for calm.
Cal scoffed, rolling his eyes. “And let me guess, you can’t tell me what those angles are?”
“That’s right. Because it’s an ongoing investigation and I don’t need you snooping around and messing things up.”
“I’m not some amateur bumbling my way through,” Cal replied, his voice rising with anger now. “I know my way around a sensitive case.”
“Do you?” Ash asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because sometimes it seems like you’re more interested in playing Ellie’s hero than in actually finding Hope.”
Cal looked as if he’d been slapped. “Don’t you dare question my intentions. I want closure for Ellie, yes. But I’m invested now, too. If she’s still alive, we need to do everything in our power to get her back to her family.”
Hope was alive?
Ellie clamped a hand over her mouth to hide her squeak of shock.
The two men stared each other down, tension crackling between them like a live wire. But before either of them could say anything else, they were interrupted by the sound of clapping and cheering from the party. They both turned and spotted her loitering by the raised flower bed. Ash’s expression closed down. Cal’s eyes narrowed slightly, but when he met her gaze, his features softened.
“We’re not done talking about this,” Cal said without breaking eye contact with her.
Ash, with a scowl and a reluctant nod, turned and made his way back to the party, leaving Ellie alone with Cal.
She didn’t say anything at first, just stood there under the starlight, blinking against the sudden brightness of the patio lights. Her heart was pounding so hard she felt lightheaded with it. She had barely managed to stammer out a “hi” before Cal closed the distance between them.
“How much did you hear?” he asked, not bothering to pretend she hadn’t been eavesdropping.
“Enough. Why were you talking about my sister?”
Cal sighed deeply and looked back towards the party. “It’s… a long story. One not really appropriate for a wedding.”
“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Frustration surged through her. She was tired of waiting for answers—and tired of old wounds being ripped open without warning. “Hope disappeared twenty years ago. How can there possibly be anything relevant now?”
Cal sighed again, running a hand through his sandy hair, messing up the neatly combed strands. “Someone called me about her few days ago.”
She inhaled sharply. “What? Who?”
“I don’t know who. She was young, and sounded scared. She asked for my help, said Hope was missing.”
“A prank call.”
“No,” Cal said quietly.
He seemed so sure. She stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. How could he be so sure?
When he finally spoke again, it was in a tone so soft she barely heard him over the murmur of the party. “I thought it was a prank at first too, but... Ash and I tracked down where the call came from and obtained security footage. And, Ellie, this girl looks like Hope. Like a teenage version of Hope.” He took a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and held it out.
Ellie slowly took it and the world tilted on its axis. Her mind spun with questions and doubts and a fierce, gnawing longing. Finding Hope had always been Alexis’s dream and until that moment, she hadn’t realized it was so important to her, too. The girl in the image looked so much like Hope it was like stepping into a time machine. The same high cheekbones, the same wild curls...
“But... how? How is it even possible? It’s has to be a weird coincidence. If Hope is still alive, she’d be forty years old now, not a teenager.”
“It’s her daughter.”
Her gaze snapped to his in disbelief. “What?”
“We found a hair clip near the phone she called me from. Ash had it tested, and the preliminary report came back nearly one-hundred percent definitive—the girl is Hope’s biological daughter.”
