Ellie’s muffled sobs filtered through the wood.
As Warren picked up a poster from the ground, he whispered:
“She’s lying. Caleb is here. I’m coming back.”
He didn’t know that upstairs, Ellie had run to a small room where a trembling boy looked up with terrified eyes.
“Caleb…” she whispered.
“My mom said stay quiet,” he murmured. “She said my dad is dead. That nobody loved me.”
Something inside Ellie shattered.
That night, unable to sleep, she found a loose board in Marilyn’s room. Beneath it was a notebook filled with dates and names—other missing children. And one name made her blood freeze:
“Caleb W.”
She copied the page, hid it in her dress pocket, and at dusk walked miles—barefoot—to a mansion she had only seen from afar.
The butler almost closed the gate.
Until she said,
“It’s about your son.”
When Warren saw her, his heart dropped.
“You… you’re the girl from the posters.”
Ellie nodded and handed him the folded paper.
“I found this. In my mom’s room.”
Warren recognized the handwriting. The dates. The pattern.
“Ellie… your mother is working with dangerous people.”
Ellie cried.
“She raised me. But she lied. I don’t want Caleb living in lies.”
Warren took her hands gently.
“You did the right thing.”