PART 2

I stared at the photograph until my vision blurred.

It couldn’t be him.

I remembered that night too clearly.

A highway collision.

A car crushed against a bridge railing.

The young father arrived unconscious, barely breathing.

We fought for nearly an hour.

The trauma surgeon finally looked at the clock and quietly shook his head.

Time of death.

I signed the paperwork myself.

I never forgot his face.

Yet here he was.

Alive.

Smiling.

Holding a newborn.

“Miss Amelia?”

Lily tugged gently on my sleeve.

“Did I do something wrong?”

I forced myself back to reality.

“No, sweetheart.”

I folded the picture carefully.

“Do you know where your dad went?”

“He said he had to fix something.”

“What?”

“He cried.”

That answer hit harder than I expected.

“Grown-ups cry too,” she whispered.

“He hugged me and said if he didn’t come back, I had to trust you.”

My stomach tightened.

Hospitals have cameras everywhere.

I hurried to hospital security.

The guard pulled up the footage from the entrance.

At exactly 8:17 that morning…

A tall man wearing a gray baseball cap walked Lily through the front doors.

He knelt in front of her.

Placed the envelope in her backpack.

Kissed the top of her head.

Then walked away.

The camera caught his face for less than two seconds.

I stopped the video.

Zoomed in.

The room went silent.

It wasn’t the man from the photograph.

It was my ex-husband.

Thomas.

The same man who had disappeared from my life two years earlier after leaving me for someone else.

“What is this?” I whispered.

Why would Thomas leave a stranger’s child with me?

Unless…

He wasn’t a stranger.

Security fast-forwarded another ten minutes.

A black SUV pulled into the parking lot.

Two men stepped out.

Neither entered the hospital.

Instead, they searched the parking lot, showing Lily’s picture to anyone who would stop.

One of them pointed toward the entrance.

The other immediately grabbed his phone.

Security looked at me.

“Do you know these guys?”

Before I could answer…

My own phone rang.

Unknown number.

I almost ignored it.

Then a text appeared before the call ended.

Don’t let them find Lily.

They’re not looking for her father.

They’re looking for her.