Without saying anything to her, Whitney dialed Dan.

His voice was groggy and garbled when he answered.

“Did I wake you?” she asked, glancing at the clock on the wall and attempting to do quick math.

“It is the middle of the night.”

“Right. Sorry. I’m surprised you answered,” she muttered.

“I assumed it was important.”

“It is,” she assured him. “I just found out that you’ve been helping Amelia get her passport.”

A heavy breath. “So she could come visit me this summer, yes.”

“But you said earlier that she doesn’t have a passport.”

“The last time we talked she didn’t have it yet,” he said. “I just signed the paperwork for her.”

“Doesn’t she need both of us to sign?”

“Not now that she’s sixteen.”

“I can’t believe you went behind my back and did this.”

“Whitney, it’s the middle of the night. Can we not do this right now?”

“She’s not back yet, Dan.”

“Oh.” There was rustling. A creaking sound like mattress springs shifting. “I guess I assumed you knew about the passport from her.”

“No. My mom, oddly enough.”

Another “Oh.”

“She took several hundred dollars out of her bank account last week. You’re sure she’s not coming to you?”

“I think she’d need more than a few hundred dollars to get here,” he said.

“I’m getting worried, Dan,” Whitney confessed. “I’ve found out all this weird stuff about her today.”

“Like what?”

“Like that she’s been talking to some older guy online and seeing a different guy behind my back.”

“I know she had mentioned wanting to date someone.”

“She did? What else did she say to you about it?”

“Just that you told her she couldn’t.”

“I was trying to protect her.”

“Hey, I get it. I don’t want her dating until she’s thirty.”

Under different circumstances, Whitney would have laughed. Finally, something they could agree on.

“How long has it been since you heard from her?” Dan asked.

“Twenty-four hours.”

“Do you think it’s time to call the police?”

“I already did,” she said, more defensively than she meant to. “They’re on their way.”

“Okay. Well, that’s good,” he said. “Keep me posted.”

“I will,” Whitney replied.

14

FOUR WEEKS
BEFORE DROP-OFF

IT WAS A Tuesday night. Business as usual. Whitney sat on the couch scrolling through Netflix, while Amelia holed up in her room, earbuds in her ears. After several minutes of not finding anything she felt like watching, Whitney left Netflix and clicked into Xfinity to see what shows she had saved.

The first one that came up was The Bachelor, her and Amelia’s guilty pleasure.

Last season they had Bachelor Night every Monday, where they ate snacks and made predictions about who would win. A couple of times Becca joined them; once Natalie did. But for the most part, it was something they did just the two of them.