AndrewI stretched on the bed, my feet meeting a crisp spot in the sheets. My eyes were still heavy, sealed tight after what felt like a decade-long sleep.Rubbing my face, I forced my eyes open. Sunlight was coming through the open curtains, but I must have been really tired because it hadn’t woken me up. Instead, I’d slowly come back to consciousness, embracing the morning only when I finally felt like it.On the left side of the bed, Lanie stirred. She lay on her stomach, hands curled under her chin. Reaching over, I ran my palm down the length of her back. She looked so pristine and angelic sleeping there. For as long as we’d been dating, it was a shame this was only our second time waking up together.I wanted her by my side every morning. In my bed. My kitchen. My office. I wanted her filling up every corner of my life.Feeling my touch, she licked her lips and sleepily blinked her eyes open. I stayed where I was, head propped in my hand and watching her.“Hi,” she whispered.“H

LanieKaren answered Andrew’s question. “Raven’s friend Jason was driving.”Andrew stopped pacing to stare at her. “Jason? Jason who?”I swallowed. “A friend of hers from school.”Andrew blinked and stared at me. “Okay. How come … Wait, why—?”“I’ve seen him around,” I explained, hoping that was good enough. Raven and I had talked about Jason some, but those conversations were technically confidential, and sharing them wouldn’t change anything currently happening.“Jason.” Hands on his hips, Andrew nodded. “Do we have a last name?”“Um.” Before I could answer, he stomped over to the desk. I exchanged a look with Karen, finding her eyes full of fear and despair. I’d only seen hints of Andrew’s temper before, but I got the sense I was about to experience the full force of it.“I need to know about this Jason kid who was in the car with my daughter, Raven,” he told the woman at the desk.She frowned. “I’m afraid we can’t release any information on patients.”“You have to be kidding me.”

LanieErica smoothly pulled her car into a spot in the hospital’s side parking lot but kept the engine on. We sat side-by-side, staring at the building in front of us.“Thanks,” I told her again. “You didn’t have to drive me.”She gave me a sad smile. “It’s okay.”I nodded, eyes tearing up again. This time, I blinked the waterworks away. I’d cried so much already, and I didn’t want to walk into Raven’s room and have Andrew see me this way. I didn’t know how much hope he still possessed, and if he saw me breaking down, it wouldn’t help any.“Have you talked to Jason?” Erica asked. She knew the whole story from A to Z. I’d called her on my way home to grab blankets and pillows on Sunday. I knew they probably had those things at the hospital, but I’d needed an hour to break down somewhere Andrew couldn’t see me. Erica, as always, had provided the crucial listening ear.“No. He wasn’t at school today. I called his parents, and they said they’ll send him to me if he wants to talk.” I shrug

Andrew“This is everything I got.” Keith Shepherd laid the folder on my home desk.I lifted it, testing its weight—or, rather, lightness. “It’s not much.”“There’s not much on him. He’s a seventeen-year-old boy.”I directed a frown his way. I hadn’t hired a private investigator to give me lip.Cracking the folder, I took a brief look at the three sheets inside. There was a page of the basic facts. Date of birth, home address, etc. Nothing that important, and nothing I couldn’t have found out myself.The second page was a printed-out instant messaging chat between Jason and someone named Hayden, dated a month earlier. According to the super-secretive conversation, they had plans to hit the mall, and Jason hoped Raven would be there. Again, nothing special.Then there was a report from school, detailing a few detentions Jason had gotten—all for being late to class or disrupting the learning environment. This late part I probably could have gotten from Lanie, but that was out of the ques

Lanie“So.” Erica settled onto her couch, curled her legs under herself, and looked at me with a dramatic pause.I raised my eyebrows, waiting.“What do you want for dinner?”“That’s what you were gonna ask me?”“Yeah. It’s Thursday night.”“I remember.”“I have that recipe for white bean stew.” She ticked it off on her finger. “And then we could make lasagna.” Another tick. “If we want anything else other than frozen waffles, we’ll have to go to the store.”“Ugh. The store.” I grabbed the folded blanket hanging from over the back of the armchair and tossed it over my legs. “It’s so cold out there, and the store is so far away.”“True. A block.”“Don’t you have some leftover candy from that Halloween party you went to?”“I don’t want to die.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and started scrolling, eyes on the screen.“That stuff has, like, enough preservatives to make it last for the next century.”“I’m ordering pizza,” she announced, clicking away.“No arguments over here.” Pulli