Chapter 1
My little sister and I ran into a Nashville police station screaming, “That man isn’t our father!” Seconds later, he charged through the door and ordered us to come home.
I was eight years old, and Lucy was only five.
She had lost one shoe while we ran three blocks through downtown.
The man chasing us kept shouting my name.
“Ethan, stop before you make this worse!”
I pulled Lucy through the station doors and collapsed beside the front desk.
“Please lock the door,” I begged. “He’s going to take us.”
Officer Emily Carter rushed around the counter and shielded us.
The man stormed inside moments later.
“There you are,” he snapped. “You two are in serious trouble.”
Lucy gripped the officer’s uniform with both hands.
“He’s not our daddy.”
The man forced a smile.
“They’re upset because I grounded them.”
Officer Carter studied his face.
“What’s your relationship to these children?”
“I’m their father, Ryan Miller.”
“That’s not our last name,” I said.
His smile disappeared.
He stepped toward me, but two officers blocked his path.
“Ethan is confused,” Ryan insisted. “His mother fills his head with lies.”
I pulled a crumpled family photograph from my pocket.
“This is our dad. His name was Daniel.”
Ryan’s face tightened when Officer Carter examined the picture.
“Where is your mother?” she asked.
Lucy started crying harder.
“He locked Mommy in her bedroom.”
The entire station went silent.
Ryan suddenly turned toward the exit.
An officer grabbed his arm before he reached the door.
Then Sergeant Collins searched Ryan’s jacket and found two children’s passports.
Neither passport belonged to Lucy or me.
Officer Carter looked at him sharply.
“Who are Charlotte and Noah Bennett?”
Ryan refused to answer.
I pointed at the silver key hanging from his belt.
“That opens the room where he keeps their pictures.”
Sergeant Collins placed the key on the desk.
But Lucy stared at it and whispered, “No, Ethan—that’s the key to the room under our house.”
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Ryan lunged toward her and shouted, “She was never supposed to see that!”
