Chapter 2: Forty-Seven Clips
The detective set the memory card on the table between us.
"There are 47 clips," he said.
"Your daughter appears in 31 of them."
My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
The other clips showed a different home.
A different little girl, maybe five or six.
Same stuffed animals on the shelf.
Same small pink bedroom.
I watched the screen and felt sick.
"Who is she?" I asked.
The detective didn't answer right away.
He slid a photograph across the table instead.
"Do you recognize this woman?"
I did.
But it took me a moment to understand why.
It was Vanessa.
Younger.
Standing in front of a house I had never seen.
And beside her — a man with his arm around her shoulder.
I recognized him too.
He was my brother.
"They were together," the detective said quietly.
"For almost two years.
Before she ever met you."
The room tilted.
Every conversation I'd ever had with Vanessa started replaying in my head.
Every question she had asked about Emma.
Every time she had offered to babysit.
Every time she had said she felt like Emma was already hers.
I stood up.
I needed to call my brother.
I needed to ask him what he knew.
My phone was already in my hand when it rang.
It was Emma's school.
"Mr.
Calloway," the woman said, her voice tight.
"Emma didn't come in from recess.
We can't find her."
What happened next will leave you speechless.
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