“Amy?” I called out over the ship’s deck. There was no response.

The frantic feeling in my chest was growing stronger by the second. She had now been missing for over fifteen minutes, and I couldn’t seem to locate her. My mother had petitioned for her to get a cellphone, but it never happened. I wasn’t ready for her to grow up just yet. Now, though, I was kicking myself for not agreeing to it.

I was just about to start searching the next deck when I heard her name and mine come over intercoms, directing me to the information desk. My heart leapt. They would only call if they had information. I quickly ran through the passengers, down a flight of steps, and into the small office area. Amy was sitting in a seat, her arms crossed and her face in a strong pout.

“Oh, thank God,” I said as I wrapped her into my arms.

She hugged me back. “I’m so sorry, Daddy. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just got so upset that you and Mom were fighting and Grandma wasn’t there. I just ran away. I know that wasn’t the right thing to do. Please don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m just happy you’re okay. Don’t you ever do that again.” I said. “I was so worried about you! You can’t run away from me, ever. When you get older, you can’t just run away from your problems either.”

“Why not?” she asked, innocence in her tone. “Isn’t that what Mom did?”

Her words caught me off guard. I had no idea she’d heard that much. “Honey, that was a different situation. Your mother and I had problems before that happened. Then things just kind of escalated.”

“But she’s here now. Does that mean she’s staying?”

“I wish I had answers for you, but I don’t know that I’m the best person to answer those questions. Your mother wanted to talk to you about all of this but I wouldn’t let her. I didn’t think that you were ready to know everything that had happened.”

“Dad,” she said sternly. “I am nine years old, and I see a lot more than you think I do. I know that Mom hasn’t been around for a long time. I just didn’t want to say anything and make you sad.”

“Oh, baby,” I said as I wrapped her into my arms again. “It was never your job to protect my feelings, honey, but thank you for doing that. Your mother and I haven’t been together for a long time now, but we never wanted you to suffer because of it.”

“Is that why she stayed away and never came back? I hope it wasn’t because of me.”

“It was never because of you, honey. There are things going on in her life that aren’t my place to tell you about. If you’re ready to go, I know that she would love to know that you’re okay. She and Grandma are waiting for us down in the cabin.”

“Do you think that she’s going to stay here with us? I mean, after the cruise? I don’t want her to leave again.”

“I don’t want her to leave either, honey, but like I said, she has a lot going on so we can’t make her stay. But I do want her to.”

“Does she know that? Because sometimes people don’t always know how you feel about them unless you tell them a lot.”

“Like how much I love you?” I asked.

She nodded. “I really am sorry that I ran away, Dad. I don’t know what got into me.”

I laughed. “I do. You’re a little girl who is dealing with a lot right now. You can’t try to be an adult all the time, honey.”

She started to cry and it broke my heart. For so long, she had been strong even though I hadn’t noticed. I was so wrapped up in trying to keep a roof over her head and making sure that she had everything a kid with two parents would have had. I’d let my own doubts and self-destruction flow over to her and it was crippling to see. She wasn’t just a kid. She was a human who needed to know that everything was going to be okay.

“We’ll go talk to your mother right now. How does that sound?” I asked again.

Amy nodded her head, wiping away her tears as I stood up. “I’m just going to talk to these guys for a second, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy, I’ll wait right here. I promise.” A smiled danced across her face and I laughed.

“Sounds good,” I said as I turned to the two men behind the desk. “Thank you all so much for your help. I can’t imagine how this must look.”

“Actually,” one of them said, “This happens more than you might think. Kids get over-stimulated and take off. We have protocols in place for this sort of thing. She is much better behaved than some of them that we’ve seen. We gave her the safe word that your wife told us and she came right along. That safe word was a good idea.”

“Safe word?” I asked.

“Yeah, a darn clever idea, that was,” said the second with a Scottish accent.

“Me and Mom made it up, Dad,” interjected Amy. “It was my idea. Spies do it all the time, and Mom said it was a good plan too.”

I knelt down to her. “So what is this safe word? Do I get to know it too? It sounds a lot cooler than just matching up our fingerprints.”

She leaned in closer and cupped her hands around my ear as she whispered, “Family.”

I smiled. “I like that safe word. What do you say we go find Mom now?”

“I like that,” she said cheerfully. “And Grandma too?”

“And Grandma too,” I echoed. “I think they have a lot to talk about. We all do.”

“Um, sir?” one of the men said. “We have a phone call on hold for you.”

Confused, I asked, “Is it coming from our room? We’re headed there now.”

He shook his head, “No sir, its coming from somewhere in the states. Can’t say where, but they are asking for you. Sounds like a woman.”

“Huh,” I muttered.

It could be anyone but it was probably Sarah. She was the only person that I’d given the contact information too. An elderly woman, Sarah was the principal for Amy’s school where I taught. She wouldn’t be calling unless it was an emergency. I reached around and grabbed the phone from the host.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hello, Aaron, honey. It’s been so long since I’ve heard your voice. I was starting to think that you were avoiding me.”

“How did you get this number?” I fumed. My face had gone pale as I turned away from Amy. I didn’t want her to see the rage I was feeling.

Jenny laughed. “Oh, Aaron, don’t you see that the fates want us to be together?”

“Start talking or I’m going to call the police. I still have a restraining order against you.”

“Oh, I know, and I promise that I’m not breaking that. You see, I found a loophole in the law. Or rather, someone who knows that we belong together found one. She really is a wonderful woman. I bet you would love her but she doesn’t like you. She said that I could have you. All I had to do was make sure that I made this call and let you know that I’m still here.”

“Who told you that?” I asked. “What do you want?”

“For us to be together, silly,” she said in a shrill voice. “That can’t happen, though, if you take back that stupid bitch. She needs to go back to Margarete.”

“Margarete,” I hissed. “She was your contact, wasn’t she? She’s the one who made this mess. Well, you know what? I have a message for her. Tell her that she has lost. I’m going to make sure that Julia stays right with me where she is safe and won’t ever be under that crazy bitch’s control again. Do you hear me? If you ever contact me again, I will use every resource I know to bring you down. You’re sick. You need help.”

“I don’t need help, baby. I just need you to understand that I won’t go away. Margarete even said that we’re soulmates, but Julia keeps sucking you into her web of lies. You know she had that poor woman locked up for no reason?”

“I am done with this conversation. If you contact either of us again—” I started to say but she hung up the phone.

I looked back at Amy, who looked ever more terrified than before but also a little curious. Before I did anything, I needed to make sure the conversation didn’t go beyond that point.

“If that number calls again, or any other call from people who aren’t named Sarah, you need to end the call and contact me. Do you understand?”

They both nodded as one of them wrote down the information I gave them. Turning back to Amy, I smiled. “Are we ready to go?”

“Who was that, Daddy?” she asked.

I shook my head as we went down the hallway to the elevator that would take us to our floor. “It was no one important, just a missing link to a puzzle.”

“I love puzzles,” she whispered.

“I know you do. This puzzle, though, isn’t for little kids. I promise that we’ll have more fun after today.”

“I like having fun, but that’s not all that matters. I want you and Mom to be okay too. Plus, me and Grandma have lots of fun together. Maybe she is feeling better, too, and we can go and do something.”

“I don’t know. I wish I had more answers for you, but the only people who can tell you what’s going to happen are already in our suite. So, what do you think? Should we go for it or just run away to the island and never look back?”

“What?” she hissed. “We can’t run away! That’s what people do when they are afraid, and I’m not afraid!”

“No,” I said with a grin. “You’re not afraid. None of us will ever have to be afraid again.”

I pushed open the door to the suite and looked inside. Before I even saw the two of them, I heard the familiar and heartwarming laughter of my ex-wife and mother as they talked to each other. It had been a good move to send her down to the suite without me. Now I could finally fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle and we could decide where to go from there as a family. Both women looked up from the couch as we came in.

Julia called out for Amy, and in an instant, the girl was running into her arms. It was almost more than I could take to see them wrapped up in each other’s arms. The tears started to prickle my eyes as I saw my mother smile. Whatever had been said, whatever had happened between the two of us, was gone now. The love and happiness had been restored. She walked over to where I was frozen and wrapped me in her arms.

“Everything is going to be okay, honey. I’m glad to see you found Amy.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything at all. It was all Julia. She gave her a safe word and told the cruise director about it. I was just following the dotted lines.”

“It looks like you have a couple of spies on your hands then,” she said with a grin.

“I think we’re going to need them now,” I said, my face falling as I faced the realization that Jenny was back in the picture.