‘All I know for sure is he ran out to put gas in his car and run a couple errands before he picked Beck – sorry, Elizabeth – up. It wasn’t until later we learned that the two of them were planning on taking off to hide out until she turned eighteen on May first so they could elope. When he left, I asked him to bring me back a strawberry Charleston Chew because I knew he thought they were disgusting. He shouted back, “Gross,” and that was the last anyone ever saw or heard from him again.’ One knuckle reached up to dab away the dampness from her eyes.

‘No one really thought much of him not coming back right away because, for all of my brother’s wonderful traits, he flat-out sucked at being on time for anything but his sports-related events. We just assumed time slipped away while he was out running errands and he’d decided not to come home before his date. It wasn’t until Beck called us – you’d think I’d remember what time it was since it was the moment our lives changed, but I don’t. She asked if we knew where he was because he never showed up at the library where they were supposed to meet. Later, when I replayed that conversation in my head, I think she was scared he’d changed his mind.’

Rosalyn’s gaze narrowed into tiny slits, shifting the lines from around her mouth up to her eyes. ‘If she’d told me then what they were planning, I could’ve told her Hayden took his responsibilities very seriously, and that there was no way he’d ever skip out on her and their child. As it turns out, that’s exactly what the police decided.’

A glower so full of heat Alyssa could almost feel the burn was one more thing that didn’t paint the portrait of a woman who would simply let her brother’s disappearance fall by the wayside.