Her gaze shot to the open window, then back to the empty crib. A figure appeared in the doorway.

“Where is she?” she cried out, putting her head in her hands. “My baby. She’s gone.”

Footsteps neared her. “Whitney.”

Her head popped up. “Dan,” she breathed out.

His hands wrapped around her shoulders, his gaze blazing into her. “You’ve gotta stop this. Our baby is fine.”

“She is.”

“Yeah, I’ll show you.” Placing his hand on her back he ushered her forward. Out of the room, down the hallway. “I really think you should talk to someone, Whit.”

“No way. I’m not talking to your dad. He already thinks I’m crazy.”

“He does not,” he said. “But I wasn’t talking about him anyway. We’ll find you a different therapist.”

“No, I’m fine,” she said. “I don’t need one.”

They rounded the corner, into the family room. There was a blanket on the floor. Her baby was lying on top on her stomach, facing the opposite wall. Her tiny hands were fisted, her feet suspended in the air.

“See? She’s fine.” Dan beamed.

Exhaling with relief, Whitney rushed forward and fell to her knees in front of her daughter. When the baby lifted her tiny head, Whitney’s breath caught in her throat, and tears filled her eyes.

“This isn’t her,” she whispered. “This isn’t my baby.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the officers emerging from Amelia’s room. “Can I call you back, Dan?”

“Of course,” he said.

Tucking her phone into the pocket of her jeans, she faced the officers. McAvoy approached, handing her a business card. “Here is my number. Call me right away if Amelia comes home or contacts you, okay?”

“You think she will?”

“In many runaway cases, the child eventually gets in touch.”

“You think she ran away?”

“It fits when you look at the big picture. She took a chunk of money out of her account, she took off with a new friend, she’s been seeing and talking to boys behind your back.” When he rattled off the facts, counting them on his fingers, it sounded rational. The logical explanation.

“But what about all the other stuff? The boy she’s been seeing—Michael. Or the fact that she’s been talking to an older man online? Oh...oh, and I forgot to mention that all of her pictures of her and Lauren disappeared from her Instagram. I mean, that’s weird, right?” Oh, God, what else had she forgotten to tell them? What if something bad had happened to Amelia and the cops dismissed it, too busy assuming she ran away?

“We’ll look into all of those things,” McAvoy promised her. “We’ll also check the local hospitals, shelters, airports.”

Whitney’s skin flamed. She hadn’t even thought to check those places.