Chapter 2: The Message in Her Purse
I forced the words out.
“What did you tell him?”
Diane wiped her cheeks.
“You were falling apart.
I thought Noah had a right to know.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“No,” Noah said.
“It was mine.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He looked at Diane before answering, and that single glance hurt more than any confession.
“Tell her,” Diane whispered.
Noah shook his head.
“Not like this.”
“Tell me what?”
Neither of them spoke.
Then a phone vibrated inside Diane’s purse.
She reached for it, but I was closer.
“Don’t touch that,” she said sharply.
I froze.
Mom had never spoken to me that way.
The phone lit up through the open purse.
Noah’s name appeared on the screen above part of a message.
I pulled it out before either of them could stop me.
“Give it back,” Noah said.
The message had been sent earlier that afternoon.
I read it aloud.
“She still thinks that night was her fault.
Don’t tell her where I took you.”
My hands began to shake.
“What night?” I asked.
Diane’s face went pale, but Noah looked toward the stairs.
That was when I heard a floorboard creak above us.
Someone else was inside my house.
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Who was upstairs—and what had Noah and Diane hidden from her?
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