Chapter 1
My neighbor sent me a video of my five-year-old daughter pounding on the door of our backyard shed, screaming for someone to let her out. I left work so fast I didn’t even turn off my computer.
By the time I pulled into the driveway, I could hear Lily crying from the backyard.
“Daddy!”
I ran around the house.
The shed door was locked from the outside.
I kicked it once.
Nothing.
I kicked it again until the cheap wooden frame cracked.
“Lily, move away from the door!”
On the third kick, the lock tore free.
My daughter was curled up beside a box of old Christmas decorations.
Her face was red.
Her hair was soaked with sweat.
She threw herself into my arms.
“Daddy, I was scared.”
I held her so tightly she started coughing.
“Who put you in here?”
Lily pointed toward the house.
“Melissa.”
My wife.
Her stepmother.
I carried Lily inside and found Melissa sitting at the kitchen counter drinking coffee like nothing had happened.
She looked up.
“You’re home early.”
I put Lily down behind me.
“You locked my daughter in a shed?”
Melissa rolled her eyes.
“She needed a timeout.”
“A timeout?”
“She threw food on the floor and called me mean.”
I stared at her.
“It’s ninety degrees outside.”
“She was fine.”
I pulled out my phone and showed her the video my neighbor had recorded.
Lily was crying.
Begging.
Calling my name.
Melissa barely looked at it.
“She’s dramatic.”
Something inside me exploded.
I grabbed Melissa by the arm and marched her toward the backyard.
“What are you doing?”
“You said the shed was fine.”
Her face changed.
“Daniel, stop.”
I opened the broken door.
“Get inside.”
“You’re insane!”
“For two minutes,” I said. “Just two minutes. Let’s see how fine it feels.”
She resisted, but I pushed the door shut after she stepped inside.
I stood outside with my hands shaking.
Then Lily grabbed my shirt.
“Daddy…”
I looked down.
She wasn’t watching the shed.
She was staring at the house.
“There’s something under my bed.”
My anger disappeared.
“What?”
“Melissa said if I ever showed you, you’d send me away.”
I immediately opened the shed again.
Melissa rushed out, screaming that she was calling the police.
I didn’t even look at her.
I ran upstairs with Lily.
Under her bed was a small black backpack.
Inside were children’s clothes.
A toothbrush.
A birth certificate.
And a one-way bus ticket from Chicago to Phoenix for the following morning.
The passenger’s name was Lily Carter.
I heard Melissa stop behind me.
I turned slowly.
“Why did you buy my five-year-old daughter a one-way ticket?”
Melissa’s face went white.
May you like
Then Lily whispered the words that made me forget how to breathe.
“She said tomorrow I was going to meet my new daddy.”
