Chapter 2: She Showed Up. What Do I Say?
My throat went dry.
“Told me what?” I asked.
“Where is my daughter?”
The teacher hesitated, then lowered her voice.
“Audrey hasn’t been attending class.
Not for the past three weeks.”
The hallway tilted.
I reached for the wall.
“That’s not possible.
Derek drops her off.
He texts Scott when she’s inside.”
The teacher shook her head slowly.
“She walks through the front door.
Then she leaves out the side entrance.” She paused.
“We only noticed because one of the other girls mentioned it.”
Three weeks.
Derek had been texting Scott every single time.
*She’s in.
Class looks great tonight.* I had seen those messages myself.
“Do you know where she goes?” I whispered.
The teacher looked down at her hands.
“One of my students saw Audrey getting back into Derek’s car around the corner.
Every time.”
My legs stopped working.
I grabbed the doorframe.
“She’s sixteen,” I said.
It came out barely above a breath.
“I know,” the teacher said quietly.
“I’m so sorry.
I didn’t know if you knew, or if—”
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was a text from Derek.
*Just dropped Audrey off.
She was great tonight.
See you Sunday.*
I stared at the screen.
My hands were shaking so hard I nearly dropped it.
Then I saw the second message underneath — the one sent from Audrey’s phone to Derek, just four minutes ago.
*She showed up.
What do I say?*
—
What Audrey’s mom found next led to a confrontation that changed everything — and exposed a secret Scott never saw coming.
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