Chapter 1
I watched three wealthy girls yank a blind child’s cane away while she cried on the school playground, and one of them laughed, “Who’s going to believe you?” Then I stepped through the gate.
I had come to Westbrook Academy in Dallas to discuss a new science building my company was funding.
Instead, I heard a little girl sobbing behind the gym.
“Please give it back,” she whispered, reaching both hands into empty air.
A girl in a designer backpack held the white cane inches from her fingers.
“Come get it, Lily.”
Lily stepped toward the voice.
The girl jerked the cane away, and her friends burst out laughing.
Lily stumbled to her knees.
My stomach turned.
“Give her the cane.”
All three girls froze when they heard me.
The tallest one rolled her eyes. “We’re just playing.”
“She isn’t laughing.”
I took the cane from her hand and knelt beside Lily.
Her fingers shook when I placed it back in her palm.
“Are you hurt?”
Before she could answer, a woman rushed across the playground.
It was Principal Margaret Hayes.
For one second, I expected her to comfort Lily.
Instead, she grabbed Lily by the arm.
“What did you do now?”
Lily’s face went white.
“They took my cane,” she whispered.
The tallest girl immediately cried, “She tried to hit us with it!”
“That’s a lie,” I said.
Principal Hayes looked at me without recognizing me.
“Sir, these girls come from excellent families, and Lily has a history of causing problems.”
Lily lowered her head like she had heard those words many times before.
Then a black Mercedes stopped beside the school entrance.
A woman stepped out and hurried toward us.
The bully smiled. “Mom!”
The woman wrapped an arm around her daughter and stared at Lily with disgust.
“That child again? I told you she doesn’t belong in a school like this.”
My hands curled into fists.
Principal Hayes leaned toward me and whispered, “Her family gives this school more than a hundred thousand dollars every year.”
“So that buys permission to torment a blind child?”
Her expression changed.
The wealthy mother finally looked closely at me.
The color drained from her face.
“Ethan Caldwell?”
Principal Hayes blinked. “You know him?”
The woman swallowed hard.
Before she could answer, Lily suddenly reached toward my wrist.
Her fingers touched the old silver bracelet I had worn for eleven years.
She stopped breathing.
“My mom had one exactly like that.”
I stared at her.
There were only two bracelets like it in the world.
I had given the other one to my younger sister the night before she disappeared.
May you like
Then Lily whispered the name I had spent eleven years trying to forget.
“Her name was Rachel Caldwell.”
