AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, they don’t. Henry also knew he wasn’t allowed to walk into the backyard without me and he does it all the time. Every single time he sees Caleb.Oh God. Could he have gone into the lake? Could he have gone to check inside Caleb’s boat and fallen in?
Molly squeezes my arm, blinking back tears. I didn’t realize she was here. “Why don’t I take Sophie inside?” she asks, reaching out. I nod, swallowing hard as I release my daughter.
I start toward the lake. “I’m going to—”
Jeremy gently grabs my arm. “They want us to stay here, Luce. We need to be available if they have questions. Here, you’re shivering.” He slips his sweatshirt over my head, and I lethim. He is not the enemy anymore. Nothing matters except my children, and I can’t believe I forgot that for even a minute.
By the time night falls, the yard is full of strangers. News crews are set up along the driveway and I want to tell them to go away, but I don’t. I’m just frozen, watching the tiny bouncing dots in the distance where police and volunteers are combing the woods for my son. In an ideal world, it would be Caleb here with me instead of Jeremy, but this is exactly what he wouldn’t want anyway, isn’t it? The fear, the responsibility, the potential for loss?
Harrison and Mrs. Doherty call. I’m not sure what they say to me. I don’t want to hear a single word from anyone unless they’ve got news about my son. And with every minute that passes, the chance of it being good news fades.
Three hours later, the low murmur of the crowd is broken by a single shout.
We all look at each other. In the distance, there’s another shout and then the police chief comes into view.
There’s a bundle in his arms.
A bundle the size of a small child.
34
CALEB
Iarrive in San Francisco just before eight and turn on my phone the second our wheels hit the tarmac. I wait for my texts to load as if they are a death sentence. Lucie’s mad that I missed the thing with Henry this morning, but what was I supposed to do?
I head toward the exit, torn between irritation and worry.You cannot serve two masters. My father was right. I have a company that needs me. I have hundreds of people who rely on me for the check that puts a roof over their heads, that puts food in their kids’ mouths. And I have the capacity to create something great—to build software that could change a child’s entire educational experience. I’d have loved to be at Henry’s thing. Doesn’t Lucie realize I gave something up today too?
Harrison calls just as I climb into the waiting Uber.
“Thank God,” he says when I answer. “Where are you? I’ve called a thousand times.”
“Airport. I’m on the way home. What’s up?”
His swallow is audible. “Caleb, it’s Henry. He’s missing. He disappeared this afternoon from the house.”
The driver’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. I blink, too shocked to find words.
“Have they—”
“They’ve done everything. But Lucie needs you. They’re… they’re dredging the lake.” He clears his throat. “She’s going to need you when they find him.”
It’s exactly like the moment Beck called to tell me Hannah had died. I never thought history would repeat itself so precisely, but it is.
The car is still moving, but I feel like I’m suspended in time. I see every streetlight, notice the way the sign over the bakery flaps in the wind, a single corner blown loose.
“He can’t be dead.” My voice is hard, businesslike. But I’m far from calm. My stomach is about to swallow me whole.
“I hope not, man,” Harrison says, but his voice is full of doubt and pity. And I remember that too…that same sort of pained, exhausted certainty in Beck’s voice when he told me about Hannah. I’d thought the same things then, didn’t I? I told Beck that I’d seen her three days before on an ultrasound. That she’d been sucking her thumb—that she couldn’t just begonewithout warning.
I can’t. I can’t go through this. I can’t lose him. I can’t watch Lucie lose him. I can’t.
I can’t believe this is happening all over again.
THE FLASHINGblue and red lights of police cars are visible from a block away. A barricade is in place halfway down the street, so I grab my bag and run—into the cul-de-sac and over the crest of the hill—stopping only as the house comes into view.
Lucie’s on the ground, holding something in her arms. I freeze in place. “Oh, God.”
“They just found him,” says the man beside me.
