“I guess,” she speaks even more quietly now. “They did.”

Leaning forward, I press my lips to her shoulder. “I promise, you,” I whisper against her skin. “They didn’t.”

Parker shivers, so I move back.

“They must’ve taken me out the side door. Do you remember the one that opens to the pebbled path?”

“Y-yes.” I must’ve run in and out of that door and along those stones a thousand times. And now, I feel I’m dying a thousand deaths.

“My foot skimmed the railing so I pushed against it as hard as I could. I must’ve knocked the guy off balance because I flipped backward and I just ran. I kept telling myself to scream, because maybe Mom and Dad were asleep but would wake up. I’ve never felt more stupid…”

And I’ve never felt so much as I do right now as Parker tells me how it was so dark, she didn’t know where she was even running.

How she ran barefoot, the pebbles from the driveway and the concrete tearing up her feet.

How she could hear them coming after her.

“Which way did you run?” I ask. “Do you remember?”

“If you’re asking if I ran toward your house, I didn’t.”

I clench my jaw. “Why?”

Parker turns, peeking over her shoulder. “What if they hurt you then?”

The look in her eyes eats away at me, but it’s how she answers my question—like it’s obvious—that will haunt me forever.

She lets out a deep breath, facing forward again. “There were more of them than I thought because, all of a sudden, one of them tried to grab me, and I fell. And then he did grab me”—Parker reaches behind, bunching her hair—“here. And he dragged me back on the street.”

Parker releases her dark locks and twists her arm behind her, her fingers running along the edge of the rectangular scar. I take her hand in mine, bringing it back down where I can hold it at her side against the mattress.

“I felt it, Fitz,” she whispers so quietly I almost don’t hear her. “Every piece of skin—of me—peel away. And the light was on at the house. The light by the front door, and I thought for a second I would be safe. Like they’d let me go,” Parker says, her voice hoarse. “Like they’d leave. But then I saw Mom and thought it was so strange she wasn’t in pajamas when it was so late. She still had makeup on. She just stood there while I was screaming. Then Dad and Madeline came out when they were loading me into the car, they didn’t even come close. I don’t even know if they heard what Mom said to me before they shut the door.”

I squeeze her hand. “What did she say?”