The world exploded into silence. I felt like I was floating, because surely the floor had disappeared beneath me. How could I be standing otherwise? What had been so clear before me blurred. I thought maybe I was going blind, only to realize that my eyes had water in them. I blinked the tears back because surely I was being punked.

Dad had said, I know her, and it replayed in my head as I tried to make sense of them. Her, who? Reagan or her mom?

The phrase bounced around in my mind, as everything else was quiet around me. There had been sobs, but all that drifted away after he said those words.

“Who? How?” I muttered while laughing, because this was ridiculous.

“You look just like him.”

The snarling words that came from her mom had me blinking at her in confusion.

Her finger sliced the air to point at me.

“You took that girl and you murdered her, just like your father.”

“Just wait a second,” Dad said. “You can’t accuse my son of such things.”

“You!” she yelled.

“Anna, please. Let’s go find Reagan. She’s upset,” her dad said.

Her mother’s face was mottled with red. “Not until we call the police.”

“My son has done nothing wrong.” Mom stepped in.

“Come on, Anna. Let’s talk about this outside,” her dad urged.

She followed, leaving me alone with my parents. I turned to glare at Dad.

“I need to go after Reagan,” I said, resolutely.

Mom came over and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Just let your father explain. Her parents will make sure she’s okay.”

“Explain what? What’s going on?”

They traded glances before Dad nodded to Mom.

“You remember when your father was arrested.” I nodded. “It was the same time your dad left his job.”

She’d made the distinction between the two men, the same way I did.

“Yeah. Dad left because he’d seen some really bad shit and decided to go into politics, because he hoped to make more of a difference there.”

He hadn’t needed to work because he had family money. But he’d gone into the military and left that for the FBI.

Dad took over. “There’d been a lead on a missing girl. She’d made a call and they traced it. It was determined she might bring us to the leader of a human trafficking ring.”

I didn’t like the sound of where this conversation was headed.

“You left her?”

“We’d gotten a trace on the call, had wiretaps in place. We weren’t sure it wasn’t a bogus call. We had to have something before we could go in and make an arrest.” I just stared at him. “Eventually a call came through that gave us a lead.” He paused. “What we heard let us know she would be going back to a larger cell or maybe even where the leader was, or so we hoped.”

Something sick welled up inside me.

“You left her,” I said again.

“She wasn’t the only one. There were more. We’d been working this case for a while and she was our best shot at saving the rest.”

“No.” I shook my head, not wanting to hear any more.

“We found her. Arrested multiple people and saved a few others, including the girl that had made the call.” He took a moment and I waited for him to say her name. “Her name was Luana.”

I turned around, breathing out. It wasn’t Reagan.

But then he wasn’t done.

“Luana Reagan Winters.”

Finding the girl that had gone missing while on vacation with her parents had dominated the news. Though, her name hadn’t been released. I’d been about thirteen then. And when it was said she was around the same age I was, I’d taken notice. They’d said she’d been held captive and have given birth to a kid they hadn’t found.

“She’s pregnant,” I whispered.

I wasn’t sure who I was talking to.

“Jesus, Tade,” Dad all but cursed. Mom covered her mouth in a silent gasp.

Although I said it out loud, I was working through everything she’d told me.

“She said she wasn’t sure she could go through with it, mentally…”

Mom’s eyes began to water. Her tented hands continued to cover her mouth.

Then I asked the question I was loathe to ask. “My father…did he have anything to do with it?”

Dad pursed his lips. “You would know better than me. But if you’re asking if he or any of his drug ring were suspects in that investigation, the answer is no.” He looked at Mom. “And I did check.”

Though I was grateful for that news, I needed to talk to Biscuit.

“I have to find her,” I said.

I opened the door to find Reagan’s dad wild eyed.

“She’s not there. She’s missing.”