“What did the letter say?” he chokes out hoarsely and I feel him sway, his legs about to buckle.

“I don’t know,” she replies as tears stream down her cheeks. “The police won’t release that information.”

“Is that what happened to my brother, too?” he whispers in horror. “Was he kidnapped? Did they kill him?”

“All I know about your brother is what you do. He vanished out of the system a couple of years ago. Social services assumed he’d ran away. The next time he was found…” She reaches out to touch his shoulder, but he moves away. More tears bubble in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” Ayden starts to sit down even though there’s no chair around. I quickly usher him to a nearby barstool before he ends up falling on the floor.

“Because we wanted you to have a normal life.” She fights back a sob, her chest heaving as she verges toward hysteria. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”

She runs over, wraps her arms around him, and squeezes him tightly. Ayden stares like he sees a ghost in the space in front of him, those dark eyes of his completely haunted with his past.

“You’re going to be okay,” she promises him, smoothing her hand over his head. “We’ll get through this. The police are looking for her.”

Still clutching onto my hand, my arm ends up getting crushed between their bodies. I wiggle it, but Ayden refuses to let go. Finally, I relax and let him hold on.

“I want to try to remember,” he croaks. “Do whatever it takes to find those people… Doctor Gardingdale… he said there were other methods…”

“Yeah, the detective mentioned those to me, too,” Lila’s tone is uneven. “And they’re too risky.”

“Leaving my sister with those people, hoping she’ll make it out alive is too risky…” His fingers enfold around the back of his neck and grip tight. “I swear I heard her scream in the parking lot tonight… She was there…”

“Oh, honey.” She pulls him nearer, like she has no clue what else to do but hang onto him.

I want to stop the pain in his life and make him feel safe, but I don’t have that power.

Right now, everything relies on what the people after Ayden want. Until we find out exactly what that is, no one’s going to feel safe again.