AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She missed him like a limb.
At home, she showered quickly and silently, changing into a pair of yoga pants and a loose shirt before having a handful of crackers from the pantry. Before going to bed, she went to check on Harper, her heart swelling at the prospect of seeing her little girl, who was growing impossibly quickly and changing before her eyes. What would Skye tell Harper about her dad? The lawyers had been aggressive with Jay, pushing him to give up custody of Harper in exchange for not pressing charges. The longer the case went on, the more and more convinced she became that he didn’t want to be a father anyway. He never had. It had always been about Skye, about using Harper to control Skye, to hurt her, to keep her in line. Not once had he asked for photographs of their daughter, nor had he ever called just to see how Harper’s day was. Not once had he shown any interest in the subject of schooling for Harper, even though he’d had the benefit of attending an elite academy in the city.
Skye sighed, pushing the door inwards and tiptoeing across the room.
Only Harper wasn’t there.
Skye’s heart sped up. She glanced around, as if half-expecting to see her daughter hiding behind the door. But there was no sign of her anywhere in her small bedroom. She walked quickly to her own room, checking the bed there. Sometimes Harper snuggled into the sheets when she missed Skye. Another pang in her heart as she thought of her little girl feeling that. Harper wasn’t in Skye’s room either.
Okay. Perhaps she’d gone into bed with Skye’s parents. That wasn’t impossible. If she wasn’t well or had experienced a nightmare?
Skye half-ran down the corridor, throwing open the door with no attempt to be quiet. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, scanning the bed. Two shapes. But she moved closer to be sure. Her mother woke instantly, sitting up. “Skye? What is it?”
“Mom? Where’s Harps?”
Irena stared at Skye. “What do you mean?”
And in that moment, Skye’s heart turned to ice. Gone was the ability to imagine this was normal, that everything was fine.
“She’s not in her bed. She’s not in my bed. Where is she?”
Irena moved quickly, shaking her husband awake. “Peter. Peter! Where’s Harper?”
But Peter was groggy, naturally a heavier sleeper than either Skye or Irena. “What? In her bed.”
“No, she’s not, Dad. She’s nowhere. Oh, God.” Skye’s heart sank. Harper was not a child who woke up once they were asleep. She was not a child who went walking in the middle of the night. She was predictable, and an excellent sleeper.
Harper pressed a hand to her mouth. “Call the police,” she groaned, running through the house, turning on every light as she went, looking under the table, in the kitchen pantry, behind doors, and then out into the dimly lit, small backyard, checking everywhere. And then she saw it.
A tiny, precious shoe near the gate.
She knew then what had happened. The latch on the gate was too high for Harper to reach. Peter had installed a new latch for precisely that reason when Skye had moved in. The only way Harper was getting out of the backyard was with an adult carrying her.
It didn’t take a detective to work out who that adult was most likely to have been. “Jay,” she groaned, dropping her head. “What have you done?”
“I should never have believed he would just disappear. I should have known something like this would happen. I should have known.”
Despite the lateness of the hour, the gala was still in full swing, and would likely continue into the early hours of the morning. Surrounded by the glitz and glamour of the world’s elite, with a jazz band playing elegant songs in the background, dressed in a jet black tuxedo and midway through a conversation with his sister and the head of their Asia-Pacific operations, the last thing he’d expected was to see Skye’s face on his phone. He’d answered immediately, swiping his fingers across the screen and stepping away from his conversation with a single lift of one finger, to indicate he’d be back soon.
“Skye? Slow down. I can’t hear you.” He moved further away from the crowd, towards the edges of the ballroom, listening as Skye’s words tumbled over themselves.
“I just got home from work and Harper wasn’t here. She’s not anywhere. And there’s a shoe, a tiny little shoe, near the gate, but she can’t open the gate, because Dad made sure she couldn’t open the gate, and she’s gone, Leandro, she’s gone, and I have a horrible feeling he has her and that he won’t give her back. That he might…oh God. What if he hurts her? I’m so scared. I’m so scared.”
That made two of them.
Ice flooded Leandro’s veins. He looked around, scanning the room, at the exact moment Max happened to look in his direction. Something in his brother’s face must have communicated the level of his panic because Max also abandoned his conversation, walking quickly towards Leandro.
“What is it?”
Leandro beckoned for Max to follow him, then strode from the ballroom. “Have you called the police.”
“Y-yes.” Skye sounded as though she was shivering.
“Good. Are they there yet?”
“It just happened. It all just happened. I don’t even know why I’m telling you. I just called because I—I thought—I don’t know. I’m so scared.”
Leandro closed his eyes. “I’m glad you called me. I want you to listen to me, Skye. We are going to find her. We are going to get her home, okay? I will do whatever it takes to get her back in your arms, you have my word.”
