CHAPTER 1: The Crumpled Paper

Noah Carter.”
Daniel led Noah away from the party before the guests could make him the subject of gossip. In the elevator, Noah stood in the corner, clutching his small cloth bag to his chest. Daniel had dozens of questions he wanted to ask, but the child looked as if a loud sound would shatter him.

“Have you had dinner yet?” he asked.

Noah nodded too quickly. A second later, his stomach rumbled softly. He lowered his head, so embarrassed his ears turned red. Daniel didn’t expose the lie, only told the driver to stop for hot soup.

In the car, Noah took a crumpled hospital paper from his jacket pocket. The patient’s name was Emily Carter. Below was a line that made Daniel's throat go dry: acute heart failure, special monitoring.

"Mom said if she wasn't awake tonight," Noah said, "I had to find you myself."

At Saint Agnes Hospital, Daniel saw Emily through the glass of the recovery room. The woman who had once laughed with him in the rain was now thin, pale, her wrists covered in tubes. Noah stood beside him, the familiar, heartbreaking smell of disinfectant making him ache.

"My mother doesn't like to bother anyone," he said. "But this time she won't get up."

Daniel didn't answer. He just looked at Emily and remembered eight years ago: he believed she had taken the money to leave. If that wasn't true, then who had made her disappear from his life?