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Back When She Returned Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I stared at the blank screen in front of me like I’d been doing for the last hour, debating whether or not I should log on to the Vanished forums and update Mom’s status. It’d been active again since word had gotten out about her return, but it was only speculation and stories. All the news outlets had interviewed the gas station attendant, but none of us had spoken to the press, and the police had only given scripted responses about the investigation and asked people to respect our privacy. Dad had said it would be a long time before they stopped hounding us for interviews. They still camped out at the end of our street. It was only the city ordinances that kept them off our yard and driveway.

I’d never posted anything before. Dad had never told me not to, but it was only because he trusted me not to be stupid enough to do it. But I wanted to tell her followers that she was doing okay, that she got better every day. They would be thrilled to talk about her progress, and so far her homecoming had only been depressing. I understood why, obviously, but I was happy she was home—no matter what the circumstances were—and wanted someone else to at least pretend to be excited about it too. Elziehunter, mindjam21, and crystalclear had been following her case since the beginning. You could feel how much they loved her in the things they said about her and how much time they spent on her case. They deserved to know how she was doing.

I logged on. When I’d first discovered the forums, I’d spent hours weeding through them. There’d been something comforting about it. Oddly enough, it still gave me the same feeling. I’d been on them every night since we found Mom, combing through them with different eyes. I clicked on the main page, browsing quickly to see if anything grabbed my attention before scrolling down to Mom’s thread: Arcata Mom Vanishes. There’d been an update last night by someone named Gloria. I clicked her profile. Gloria had one post and had only been a member for two days. My gut churned.

I quickly scrolled down to the message and clicked it open on my screen:

Kate Bennett is a dead woman.

KATE

THEN

I hugged Bekah’s baby boy close to my chest as the smell of smoke filled my lungs. The weight of my backpack pressed down on me, making it almost impossible to run. The home we’d worked so desperately to build burned behind us.