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“You promised,” I whisper.

“I promised I would keep her safe.”

My arms shake as Mae carefully lifts my daughter away from me.

“No.” I try to sit up. Agony shoots through my body. “Wait.”

Mae wraps my little girl in the blanket.

“What will you call her?” she asks.

I look at my baby’s pale hair and the delicate curve of her cheek. I think about the herb that grows wild beside the creek where Sean and I spent so many afternoons. Sean once tucked a sprig of it behind my ear and told me I was the prettiest girl in Tennessee.

“Sage,” I whisper. “Her name is Sage.”

My mother grabs the basket.

Mae lays my daughter inside.

I reach toward her, but she is already too far away.

“Tell Sean,” I beg.

Mae looks at me.

“Tell Sean Campbell he has a daughter. Tell him I didn’t leave him.”

My mother pushes Mae toward the door.

“Tell him they took us both.”

The bedroom door closes.

My daughter’s cries grow fainter as they carry her down the hallway.

I press both hands over my mouth, but there is no stopping the scream that tears out of me.

Sean is gone.

My baby is gone.

And I am locked inside a house where no one will ever hear me.

1

SEAN

“You’re getting old.”

I look across the fire at Taylor Bradley. “I’m three months older than you.”

“Those three months have been hard on you.”

Arthur Dexter grins as he turns the steaks on the grill. “He does look tired.”

“I spent the day pulling both of you out of a ravine.”

“We were testing the rescue equipment,” Taylor says.