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“You belong to yourself.”

She searches my face.

“And you belong with me for as long as you want to.”

Her eyes fill again.

“What happens now?”

“Now you finish making those cinnamon rolls.”

She blinks.

“Then you tell us everything you remember about Greg, the warehouse, and the men who were there. We’ll speak with the sheriff. We’ll find Navarro.”

“And my mother?”

The question strikes the oldest wound inside me.

“We’ll find her too.”

“How?”

I look at the backpack on the floor.

“We start with Addy’s letters.”

Sage follows my gaze.

“There are hundreds.”

“Then we read every one of them.”

“What if we find out Hayley died?”

I lift the brown wig from her head and set it beside her backpack. Her real hair tumbles over her shoulders.

“Your mother survived what her parents did to her. She escaped that house. She spent years searching for you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because she loved you before you were born.”

I stand and hold out my hand.

After a moment, Sage takes it.

I lead my daughter out of the room where she was hiding and back into the house that will always be hers.

Outside, deputies question the men who came to take her.

Inside, cinnamon and vanilla still fill the kitchen.

Sage looks at the pans of dough waiting on the counter.

“They’ve probably risen too long.”

“They’ll still be the best cinnamon rolls we’ve ever eaten.”