Chapter 1

My daughter went downstairs to buy salt and never came back. Five years later, the case was still open, and I'd plastered up so many missing-person flyers I'd lost count. Then one day at the market, a filthy stray dog bit into my calf.

The pain made me crouch down as I tried to shove it away. Then I saw the red string tied around its leg. I had fastened that string to my daughter myself before she left home.

My hands started shaking. The dog suddenly spun around and ran, and I chased after it with blood streaming down my leg. After winding through alley after alley, it stopped at a door. My ex-husband's door.

Blood seeped through the gray fabric around my calf, leaving a dark stain. It hurt, but not even close to how my heart hurt. Five years later, I was standing before that familiar door, its dark red paint already starting to peel.

From inside came the faint sound of a TV, a woman's laugh, and a child's giggle. They sounded so damn happy. Less than a year after Lily vanished, David Grant divorced me.

He said I'd gone crazy, draining us dry for a daughter who would never come back. He said our home felt like a funeral every day. Then he moved out and took every last cent of our savings with him.

Shadow sat by the door, whining low in its throat. In the dim hallway, the red string on its leg looked like a little flame. I'd braided it from Lily's favorite red thread, with three tiny lucky beads worked into it.

Lily had once said, "Mom, this way you won't get lost." Now that string was tied to a dog's leg, and that dog had led me back to David's home.

My hands shook so badly I had to brace myself against the cold wall. My heart hammered as I stared at the door, not knowing whether hell or hope waited behind it. I drew a breath and pounded hard.

Bang. Bang. Bang. The laughter inside stopped cold. Footsteps approached, a woman called impatiently, "Who is it?" and the door swung open.

A woman in a silk nightgown stood there. Melissa Ford. I'd seen her in photos. She froze for a second when she saw me, then curled her lip in disgust. "Who are you? Who are you looking for?"

I didn't even look at her. My gaze went past her into the living room, where David sat on the couch peeling an apple for a little boy of five or six. Snacks and fruit covered the table. A happy family of three.

How nice. My world had been in ruins for five years, while his had already bloomed again.

The second David saw me, the smile on his face froze. He nearly dropped the paring knife. The shock and panic in his eyes stabbed straight into my heart. "Jane? What are you doing here?"

I didn't answer. I just pointed at the black dog outside, my voice so hoarse it barely sounded like mine. "David, look at that dog. Now tell me why Lily's red string is tied around its leg."

David's gaze followed my finger to the red string on Shadow's leg, and his face went white in an instant. Not the pale look of surprise, but bone-deep fear, like a buried secret had just been dragged into the light.

He lurched to his feet so fast the little boy in his arms cried out. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered. Melissa frowned and came over. "Where the hell did this crazy woman come from, David? Do you know her?"

I ignored her and kept staring at David. For five years, I'd wondered every day where Lily had gone. I'd imagined countless possibilities, and one of them was that she'd been kidnapped.

Maybe she'd met with an accident. Maybe worse. But never, not once, had I imagined that this man was involved. He was Lily's own father.

"You don't know?" I let out a cold laugh. My calf throbbed like hell, but I could barely feel it anymore. "David, Lily was wearing that red dress and that red string the day she vanished. And you dare say you don't remember?"

David's lips trembled, but no words came out. Melissa shoved him impatiently. "Then say something already. Who is this woman? Who's Lily?"

Before David could answer, the little boy pointed at Shadow outside and said, "Mom, I know. That dog belongs to big sis." The whole living room went dead silent, and I whipped around to stare at him. David and Melissa looked like corpses.

David clapped a hand over the boy's mouth. "Benji! Don't talk nonsense!" Melissa crouched beside him with a stiff smile. "Be good, Benji. We don't have a big sister, remember? Did cartoons confuse you?" Benji only struggled, his wide eyes full of fear and confusion.

My heart kept sinking. Shadow suddenly barked at David, sharp and desperate. I shoved Melissa aside, walked straight in, then crouched before Benji and softened my voice. "Sweetie, can you tell me where that big sister is?"

Benji glanced at me, then at his father's livid face, and shrank back in fear. Clutching his son like a life raft, David barked, "Jane, have you lost your mind? Get the hell out!" I rose slowly. "Not until you tell me where Lily is. Nobody's leaving today."

I pulled out my phone, the glow lighting up my face. "I'm calling the police right now. I'll tell them the first real clue to my daughter, who's been missing for five years, is in this house."