Chapter 1 - TOMMY’S STILL UPSTAIRS
The living room still looked like a wedding had happened there.
White ribbons hung from the staircase. Half-melted candles leaned inside glass holders. Pink roses drooped over silver vases. Champagne glasses crowded the mantel beneath family photographs that suddenly seemed to belong to strangers.
Ethan Carter stood near the fireplace in his Army service uniform, watching his new brother-in-law pace across the room.
Wade Mercer had married Diane less than four hours earlier.
Now his tuxedo jacket was open, his bow tie hung crooked, and something wild had entered his face.
Ava stood near the sofa.
Twelve years old.
Barely five feet tall.
Holding a smartphone with both hands.
“Give me that phone!” Wade shouted.
He lunged.
Ava twisted away, but Wade caught her wrist.
Ethan moved before anyone else understood what was happening.
He crossed the room in two strides and drove one shoulder into Wade’s chest.
Wade flew backward.
The wooden chair behind him collapsed sideways, and he crashed against the floor amid wedding ribbons and broken flower stems.
The room erupted.
Diane screamed.
An elderly woman dropped a champagne glass.
Three relatives rushed forward and stopped when Ethan turned.
He stepped in front of Ava.
His body became a wall.
Wade pushed himself up, breathing hard.
“You have no idea what she did.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Touch her again.”
The words were quiet.
That made them worse.
Wade froze.
Ava’s fingers shook around the phone.
Her face was pale, but she did not lower it.
She tapped the screen.
Several photographs appeared.
Dark.
Blurry.
Taken from inside a small upstairs room.
A mattress on the floor.
A locked door.
A child’s hand near the frame.
Then a boy’s face.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Every voice in the living room died.
Ava swallowed.
“Look at Tommy.”
Diane covered her mouth.
Wade’s father moved closer.
At first, he looked confused.
Then he saw the image clearly.
His face drained of color.
He grabbed Wade by the arm and yanked him backward.
“What did you do?”
Wade pulled free.
“It is not what it looks like.”
Ethan took the phone from Ava.
He studied the photographs one by one.
Tommy Mercer.
Eight years old.
Wade’s son from his first marriage.
The boy had not appeared at the wedding.
Wade told everyone Tommy was with his mother in Arizona.
Ethan enlarged the image.
The date stamp was from twenty minutes earlier.
The photograph was taken inside this house.
He looked toward the staircase.
“Who locked that door?”
No one answered.
Ava raised one trembling hand and pointed toward the upstairs hallway.
Wade instinctively stepped backward.
The guests followed his movement with their eyes.
Ava locked eyes with Ethan.
Tears filled hers, but she forced the words out.
“Tommy’s still upstairs.”
Ethan turned toward the staircase.
Wade moved first.
May you like
Not toward the boy.
Toward the front door.
