Chapter 4
The police station was cold and sterile.
I sat in an interview room for what felt like hours.
A detective named Carter took my statement.
He was in his forties, with kind eyes and a weary face.
"Mr. Hale," he said. "We've issued an arrest warrant for Celeste Bennett. We're also looking for the two men in the footage. We're running their faces through the system."
I nodded.
"And my wife?" I asked. "Elena. Is there any sign of her?"
Detective Carter sighed.
"We're following several leads," he said. "The footage gives us a timeline. We know when she was taken. We're checking traffic cameras from that night. Trying to track where those men took her."
"Is she alive?" I whispered.
The question hung in the air.
Detective Carter leaned forward.
"I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "Eight months is a long time. But we've seen cases where people survived longer. The fact that Celeste used that threat against your daughter—'I'll make sure Mommy never comes back'—it suggests she might still be alive. That Celeste has been holding that over the little girl."
Hope flared in my chest.
Faint but burning.
"We're also checking Celeste's phone records," he continued. "Bank accounts. Travel history. If she's been holding your wife somewhere, there will be a paper trail. Rent payments. Utility bills. Something."
I gave him everything I had.
The USB drive with the footage.
Celeste's phone number.
Her address.
Names of mutual friends.
Anything that might help.
As I left the station, my phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
I opened it.
"You think you've won?" it said. "You have no idea what you've started."
My blood ran cold.
Celeste.
I showed the text to Detective Carter.
"We'll trace it," he said. "Go home. Be with your daughter. We'll handle this."
I drove home.
My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles turned white.
I kept checking the rearview mirror.
Half expecting to see Celeste following me.
When I got home, Ilaria was awake.
She was sitting at the kitchen table.
My mother had made her pancakes.
But she wasn't eating.
"Daddy," she said when she saw me. "Where's Mommy?"
My heart broke.
I knelt in front of her.
I took her small hands in mine.
"We're going to find her, baby," I said. "I promise. The police are looking for her right now."
"Will she come home?" she asked.
Her eyes were so big.
So full of hope and fear.
"I hope so," I said. "I really hope so."
She threw her arms around my neck.
"I missed her," she whispered.
"I missed her too," I said.
That night, I slept on the floor beside Ilaria's bed.
I kept the lights on.
I kept my phone in my hand.
Waiting.
For news about Elena.
May you like
For news about Celeste.
For whatever came next.
