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I knew they were lying.

I heard her crying as Mae carried her down the hallway.

It took thirteen years and every dollar I could save to learn the midwife’s name.

Mae Baxter.

By the time I found her, she had been dead for nearly two years.

Now Sage is missing too.

A knock sounds against my motel-room door.

I freeze.

The clock beside the bed reads four thirty-seven in the morning.

No one knows I’m here except Daniel Price, the investigator who sent the file.

Even he doesn’t know my room number.

I quietly close the laptop.

Another knock comes.

“Ms. Brooks?”

My entire body turns cold.

Hayley Brooks is the name I gave myself after escaping my parents.

Very few people know it.

I reach beneath the pillow and wrap my hand around the small handgun I bought six years ago. I’ve taken classes. I practice every month.

I promised myself I would never be helpless again.

“Who is it?”

“Motel management. There’s a problem with your vehicle.”

The man at the desk called himself motel management when I checked in. His voice was higher. Older.

I slide off the bed without making a sound.

My shoes are already on. I learned years ago not to sleep barefoot in unfamiliar places.

I move to the edge of the window and lift the curtain less than an inch.

My car is parked beneath a yellow security light.

The driver’s-side door is open.

Two men stand near it.

A third man waits outside my room.

My investigator warned me to stop asking questions about Greg Maddox.