A door slammed. I raced down the hall and skidded into the kitchen. I tugged the back door open just in time to watch Daniel and a girl race into the woods.
I raced after them, screaming his name, but they were too fast.
I lost them.
***
I drove straight to the nearest police station and told the desk officer everything.
“Why would he run from you?” he asked.
I lost them.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I need you to help me find him before he disappears again.”
“I’ll send out an alert, ma’am.”
I took a seat. Every time the door opened, my whole body went rigid.
I kept asking myself the same questions on a loop: What if he’s already on a bus? What if he’s gone? What if that was my only chance?
Close to midnight, the officer walked over to me.
“I need you to help me find him before he disappears again.”
“We found him. He was near the bus terminal. They’re bringing him in as we speak.”
A wave of relief crashed over me. “And the girl who was with him?”
“He was alone.”
They brought Daniel into a small interview room.
I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt it on my face. “You’re alive. Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? And when I finally found you… Why did you run from me?”
He looked down at the table. “I didn’t run from you.”
“And the girl who was with him?”
“Then what—”
“I ran because of Maya.”
And then he told me everything.
In the weeks before Daniel disappeared, Maya had confided in him. She told him that her stepfather had been getting increasingly quick-tempered and unpredictable. He yelled and broke things nearly every evening.
“She said she couldn’t stay there anymore,” Daniel said. “She was scared.”
And then he told me everything.
“I met him, I think. I went to her house to ask if she knew what had happened to you, and a man answered the door. He told me Maya was staying with her grandparents.”
Daniel shook his head. “He lied.”
I slumped back in my chair. “All this time… but why didn’t she tell a teacher? And what’s this got to do with you running away?”
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