YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT DRIVING.
Below the message was a photograph.
My house.
Taken from across the street.
And through the front window, clearly visible beneath the living-room lights…
were my two daughters.
PART 7 — THE MAN WHO WANTED ME GONE MADE ONE FINAL MISTAKE
I don’t remember running.
I remember the elevator.
Daniel shouting.
Security moving.
Eleanor grabbing my arm.
Then somehow I was inside a black SUV racing toward my neighborhood.
I called Sophie.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone.
“Call the police,” Daniel said.
“I am.”
Lucy finally answered.
“Dad?”
Air rushed back into my lungs.
“Lucy, where are you?”
“At your house.”
“Is Sophie there?”
“She’s upstairs.”
“Lock every door.”
“Why?”
“Do it now.”
My voice frightened her.
I hated myself for that.
“Dad?”
“Listen carefully. Go upstairs. Take Sophie. Lock yourselves in my bedroom. Don’t answer the door for anyone except uniformed officers. Understand?”
