The woman started to cry. She reached into her coat and held out a small box.
“Is Lily home?”
I don’t know why, but the second I saw it, I went cold.
“You don’t know your daughter at all,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I have to be the one to tell you.”
Inside the box was a flash drive.
“I’m Marissa. Annie’s mom. Please. Watch it before Lily wakes up. Without her.”
I should have thrown them out. Instead, I looked at her shaking hands and let them in.
I sat them at the kitchen table. I opened my laptop. My heart was pounding in my ears.
What I saw shocked me to my core. I couldn’t believe it.
“You don’t know your daughter at all.”
At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at.
I watched it again.
By the third time, my stomach turned over, and I gripped the edge of the table.
“This can’t be Lily! It’s not her.”
“It is,” Annie said softly.
I demanded to know what was going on with my daughter.
What I saw shocked me to my core.
But Annie said there was something else I needed to know first.
