He wasn’t even sure when she disappeared because she used to take off sometimes, and their dad （my grandpa is NOT NICE） didn’t really notice she was gone at first. Dad was the one who started wondering, and he was only 17 at the time. So he only knows she disappeared sometime in the spring of 2001, and they finally told the police, but they didn’t even have any information to give them. She hadn’t bought her van yet, so it didn’t make sense that she’d leave, but the police said she’d turn up, and even her family figured she’d tumble back into town in a few months, and then it just . . . didn’t happen. Nothing.
When my dad turned eighteen, he went back to the police to file an official report. I’m not sure they even questioned anyone! Just filed it and moved on.
She’s literally never been heard from again. Her name is Mary Elizabeth Sooner. I haven’t been to church in a long time, but I’m going to go light a candle for her after I post this.
Anyway, stay safe out there, chicas.
Everett shivered. He couldn’t believe how little people paid attention. If you got stuck with a parent who didn’t love you, no one else cared what happened either.
What would have become of him if he didn’t have Mom? Would his dad have taken off and left him at daycare or school, and never returned?
Probably.
Strangely, that made him feel a little steadier. Dad was going to do what he was going to do. Everett’s focus had to be on his mom.
And Alex Bennick.
He opened a new message for Josephine. I’ll tell my mom I have robotics again tomorrow. Can you meet me after school? I’ve got an idea. We need to go to that nursing home.
Without leaving a message for his dad, he closed the window and tucked the tablet under his bed. Dad could wait. He’d sure made Everett wait long enough.
CHAPTER 22
It was a hobby of hers, ruining families and betraying husbands. Inserting her nose into other families’ business, probably because she’d been abandoned over and over and couldn’t stand to see other women thrive with what she lacked. What a waste.
She was one of those women who’d been thrown away. Her own father had tossed her aside, her mother was a whore, and now she was riddled with weakness like so many others.
These women simply didn’t matter, not even to those who made a show of pretending they cared. Some people were discarded by life so quickly they never left even a hint of a mark on it.
Back then, only four women had ever been officially reported as missing, but he knew there were five. The fifth girl so used up and discarded by age seventeen that no one had bothered looking for her. If no one notices a girl disappear, was she ever really there?
No. No, she wasn’t. She was nothing but a phantom stain on the world.
Lily Brown had found a toehold of sorts in life. One little edge of solid ground to stop her descent. A job and a place to live, even if that place was on the boundary of society, the quiet, empty border of town.
But she didn’t deserve that little toehold at the margins. She was a lying, conniving bitch, and she didn’t respect fatherhood or family or loyalty. She’d proven that. She’d lived that belief.
She lied about everything. Lied like the deceitful, whoring piece of crap she was. She couldn’t open her mouth without bullshit falling from it like blood from a wound. And she’d been doing it so long she thought she could fool everyone.
But he wasn’t everyone. He knew her. He knew women like her. And she needed to learn a very important lesson about honesty.
He was just the man to teach her. Like he’d taught so many others.
They’d say, She lived out here all alone, what did she expect? They’d say, With a husband like that, who’s even surprised she disappeared? Then they wouldn’t say anything at all because someone else would fill her place and the world would move on and on, churning out more girls just like her. More girls to fall through the cracks into his arms, where he saved them from the misery that floated around them and fouled others.
And Lily Brown deserved that more than any other woman he’d ever met. Because she’d stolen his heart.
CHAPTER 23
Lily grimaced as she watched Alex’s vehicle pull in on her monitor. She should confess to him. Tell him her son had been looking through his things. She should, but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t risk that, couldn’t risk her job.
She felt even more guilty when he waved at the camera as he drove by, flashing his cute grin just in case she was watching.
“Ugh,” she complained to herself. How the hell had a simple flirtation become so fraught?