Naomi tore open the envelope before the man could reach her.

Officer Daniel Ruiz stepped between them and pressed one hand against the man’s chest.

“Stay where you are.”

“That belongs to me,” the man snapped.

Naomi unfolded a faded sheet of paper.

The first line made her knees weaken.

Naomi, if Caleb ever finds this, tell him his mother never stopped looking.

“My son,” she whispered.

“This is about my son.”

The photograph slipped from her fingers.

It showed six-year-old Caleb wearing the red baseball cap he had worn the day he disappeared fourteen years earlier.

The man lunged for it.

Officer Ruiz twisted his arm behind his back.

“I warned you.”

“My name is Victor Hale,” the man said.

“That photograph proves nothing.”

Naomi held the picture against her chest.

“Where is Caleb?”

“I’ve never heard that name.”

“You turned pale when I opened the envelope.”

“You’re imagining things.”

The boy gripped Naomi’s apron.

“His name is Victor.

He made me call him Uncle.”

Victor glared at him.

“Eli, be quiet.”

Naomi dropped to one knee.

“Your name is Eli?”

“Eli Mercer.”

“Where is your mother?”

Victor answered first.

“She left him with me.”

Eli shook his head so hard that his hair fell across his eyes.

“He took me outside school.

Mom told me never to go with him.”

Officer Ruiz called for another unit.

His partner guided Eli toward a booth, but the boy refused to release Naomi’s hand.

“Please don’t let him take me.”

“He won’t,” Naomi said.

“You’re staying beside me.”

Victor gave a short laugh.

“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Naomi stood.

“You made the same mistake fourteen years ago.

You thought I would stop searching.”

A woman in a navy coat entered and showed her badge.

“Detective Mara Singh.

Which one is Victor Hale?”

Victor lifted his cuffed hands.

“Your officers are holding a legal guardian.”

Mara placed a document on the table.

“Then you won’t mind explaining why Eli Mercer was reported missing forty-seven minutes ago.”

“I have temporary custody.”

“His mother says otherwise.”

“She’s unstable.”

Eli hid behind Naomi.

“That’s what he told people about Mom.”

Mara opened the envelope with gloved hands.

A silver chain fell onto the table.

Naomi covered her mouth.

“That was Caleb’s.”

“You’re certain?” Mara asked.

“I fastened it around his neck on his sixth birthday.

Look at the clasp.

I tied blue thread around it because it kept opening.”

Victor’s smile disappeared.

Mara turned toward him.

“How did a missing child’s necklace end up in Eli’s backpack?”

“He found it.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“You knew enough to tell Naomi not to open the envelope.”

Victor leaned toward Naomi.

“Ask her why her own husband stopped believing her.”

Naomi’s hand tightened around the chair.

“My husband broke under the waiting.

That does not make your story true.”

“No,” Victor said.

“The money does.”

“What money?”

“The twenty-five thousand dollars deposited into your account three days after Caleb vanished.”

Naomi stared at him.

“There was no deposit.”

Victor looked at Mara.

“Check before you decide who the victim is.”

Mara’s phone rang.

She listened, then slowly turned toward Naomi.

“We checked,” she said.

“The deposit is there.”

Victor’s smile returned.

“And the transfer,” Mara added, “carries Naomi’s signature.”