Chapter 1

To plan this long-awaited graduation road trip, I spent three months researching and created a detailed fifty-page travel guide.

During the trip, I handled all the cooking, cleaning, and most of the late-night driving.

But at a lonely service stop out in the northwest, I went to the restroom, and when I came out of the restroom, the RV I had paid for in full was gone.

My boyfriend, Ryan Brooks, and our three college buddies had vanished, too.

Under the scorching sun, I waited for two hours before finally borrowing a stranger's phone to log into social media.

Ryan had just posted a video. The RV was cruising down the most scenic highway, with Emily Turner, his childhood friend who loved to play the little sister, sitting in the passenger seat.

The guys in the back were joking around, "It's way more fun with Emily around. Unlike someone else, who has to count calories even at a barbecue. Total buzzkill."

Ryan gripped the steering wheel with one hand, wearing a sarcastic smile. "Let her get a reality check at the service stop, so she doesn't start thinking she's our mom or something."

Watching them all laughing and having a blast, I didn't even bother calling to confront them.

Instead, I dialed the rental company's satellite service hotline.

"Hello, my RV has been stolen. Please activate the remote fuel cutoff and lock the vehicle immediately," I said.

*****

After verifying my identity, the customer service rep cut off the RV's fuel supply.

Before I could even hang up, Ryan's number came up on my screen.

He didn't bother asking whether I was still at the service stop, and he spoke with barely concealed irritation.

"Claire, did you lock the RV? We're stranded in the middle of nowhere, and Emily has a headache from the sun. Turn the fuel back on, now."

I could hear Emily's voice in the background, saying she was thirsty.

Her voice wasn't loud, but Ryan immediately switched to a gentle tone to soothe her. But when he spoke to me again, the annoyance was back in his voice. "We were just messing around. Did you really have to make such a big deal out of it?"

The pavement at the service stop was scorching hot, and my palm was slick with sweat as I gripped my phone.

"Come back and pick me up," I said.

Ryan said, "It'll take more than two hours round trip. Gas isn't free, you know."

He paused, as though he were giving me one last chance.

"Just unlock the RV. We'll wait for you in the next town. There are buses from the service stop every day, so get yourself over here."

I paid for the RV rental myself, and the gas was charged to my card.

But he'd rather have all five of them suffer in the heat on the roadside than come back for me.

I looked up at the empty parking lot, and my throat was raw from the hot wind. "My ID, my cash, and my luggage are all still in the RV. How am I supposed to catch a bus?"

Ryan paused for a couple of seconds, and then his voice softened. "Clairy, don't be difficult. Just unlock the RV, okay? I'll have Alex bring your backpack back to you, and that should be good enough."

Clairy was the name he had loved to call me back when he was trying to win me over.

Back in our freshman year, we went to a music festival in a nearby city, and on the way home, the bus left me behind at a rest stop.

When Ryan realized it, he got off at the next exit and walked four miles down the highway to find me.

He put his jacket over my head and promised that from then on, no matter where we went, he would always count heads to make sure I was still there.

But this time, he was the one behind the wheel, and he left me stranded.

I didn't call him out for using that nickname, which had lost its meaning. I told the customer service rep, "Temporarily restore the fuel supply."

Everyone cheered on the other end of the line.

Ryan chuckled. "I knew you wouldn't really leave us stranded. Wait at the service stop and Alex will bring your backpack over."

Right before the call ended, I heard Emily pipe up in a playful tone, asking if they could stop at the salt lake next for photos.

Ryan agreed right away.

I had planned for us to watch the sunset tonight, but he said we were too pressed for time and told me to take it off the itinerary.

It turned out it was never about the schedule. Iit was about who was sitting next to him in the passenger seat.

Forty minutes later, an SUV pulled up at the service stop and stopped right in front of me.

Alex Carter rolled down the window and just chucked my canvas backpack onto the pavement.

He never bothered to get out, just scowled and barked, "Ryan said you gotta get to the town by six. If you keep causing trouble, we're not waiting."

The backpack hit the concrete with a sharp crack from inside.

I crouched down and unzipped it, and my backup phone's screen was shattered. My wallet was still there, but my ID and the old watch my mother left me were gone.

Ryan was the one who put that watch on my wrist before we set out. He said that out in the middle of nowhere, reading the hands is way more reliable than checking your phone.

"Where's my ID and my watch?" I asked.

Alex avoided my eyes and kept his hand on the wheel.

He said, "Emily gets carsick, so she needs some room up front. Your ID pouch was in the way, so Ryan took it for safekeeping. Your watch probably got left behind in the RV, and it's only an old one, so we'll find it later."

With that, he hit the gas, and the tires crushed my travel guide without a second thought.

The pages scattered and caught the wind, and my carefully marked routes and emergency contacts disappeared into the dust. Alex glanced in the rearview mirror, but he did not bother to stop.

I took two steps after him, and then I stopped myself.

For three months, I'd stayed up late every night putting that guide together, and not one of them ever bothered to read a single page.

Now, they just wanted to follow the route I'd mapped out, taking someone else to see all the places I'd been dreaming about.

I bent down to pick up the scattered pages, swallowing the question that was already on my lips.

When I sent the next message, I changed his contact name, the one I had only used while we were together.

On the borrowed phone, I sent a message to Ryan.

I sent: [Give me my ID back by six.]

After sending it, I closed the travel guide, its pages covered in tire tracks.