Chapter 2: What Daniel Left Behind
Part 2 ⬇️
I knelt down so Evan and I were eye level.
My voice came out steadier than I felt.
"Evan.
Is your real dad's name Daniel Marsh?"
The boy nodded slowly.
The room went completely quiet.
Ryan stopped struggling against the officers.
His whole body went still in a way that scared me more than the lunging had.
"I want a lawyer," he said.
"Right now."
I stood up and looked at him directly.
"You can have one.
But first tell me — where is Daniel?"
Ryan turned his face toward the wall and said nothing.
I turned back to Evan.
He was still clutching the bracelet with both hands.
"Did your dad ever tell you where he went?" I asked.
Evan hesitated.
Then he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, worn soft at the creases like it had been opened and closed a hundred times.
"He left this under my pillow the night before he was gone."
I unfolded it carefully.
It was a handwritten note.
Short.
Only two lines.
*Evan, if Ryan ever hurts you, run.
Find my brother.
Tell him to look under the floorboards in the old house on Crestfield Road.*
My chest tightened.
I knew that house.
We grew up there.
May you like
Ryan's eyes cut sideways toward the note.
For the first time, he looked genuinely afraid.
