Within seconds they vanished among the trees.
I drove straight to the nearest police station and told the officer everything.
“Why would he run from you?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, my voice shaking. “But please help me find him before he disappears again.”
Hours later, close to midnight, the officer approached me.
“We found him near the bus terminal. They’re bringing him in.”
Relief hit me so hard I nearly collapsed.
“And the girl?” I asked.
“He was alone.”
They brought Ethan into a small interview room.
The moment I saw him, tears filled my eyes.
“You’re alive,” I whispered. “Do you know how worried I’ve been? Why did you run?”
He stared at the table.
“I didn’t run from you.”
“Then why?”
“I ran because of Lily.”
Slowly, he told me everything.
In the weeks before he disappeared, Lily had confided in him. Her stepfather had become angry and unpredictable, yelling and breaking things nearly every night.
“She said she was scared to stay there,” Ethan said quietly.
I remembered the man who had answered the door at her house.
“He told me she was staying with her grandparents.”
Ethan shook his head.
“He lied.”
Lily had come to school that day with a bag already packed. She planned to leave.