JENNIE
In just minutes the street had filled with police cruisers. Jisoo pulled in last, getting out of an unmarked SUV, and rushed over to where we stood. Her officers followed, crowding in close to form a blockade around us.
My entire body trembled as I stood tucked into Lisa's side.
Jisoo took my hand, giving it a squeeze. "Tell me everything. From the beginning."
The idea of saying the words—she took my son—made my throat close. Like she knew I wouldn't be able to do it, Lisa held me tighter and spoke for me.
She told her how we'd come to pick up Leo. How we'd gone to Jill's house only to find it empty. How we'd both raced for the center, panicked and frantic, and demanded information from the owner and other caregivers—there hadn't been much to share. No one in the building, not the women in the office or the girl in the nursery, had a clue where Jill would take Leo.
All we knew was that Jill had left with him, promising to return soon. And then she'd disappeared.
With every word Lisa spoke, the tremors in my limbs amplified until I was sure that if not for her arm around my back, I would have buckled to the icy sidewalk.
Jisoo soaked in her statement like a sponge, listening without comment until she was finished. Then she began issuing orders to her officers. "Get Jill's information. Start with her car. Description. License plate. Make and model. Push an AMBER Alert immediately. Then run her plates and get it out around town. Dig into her phone after that. See if we can track her to a cell tower."
"You got it, Chief." One of the men took off running for the center's front doors.
"Search her house," Jisoo ordered two other officers.
They rushed off and only seconds later, I flinched at the boom of a door being kicked in.
"Has this ever happened before?" Jisoo asked.
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Once. She took Leo with her to run home. But she was only gone for a few minutes. I told her she couldn't do that again."
"What's her relationship with Leo?" Jisoo asked.
"She loves him. She acts like she loves him." Maybe she loved him too much. My head was spinning. My legs began to crumble.
"Breathe." Lisa held me tighter. "Breathe, Jennie."
I filled my lungs, the sting in my nose bringing a new set of tears. "Do you think she might have taken him? That she wants to keep him?"
"This is most likely just a miscommunication," Jisoo said. "Maybe she had to run to the store or something. You were here early today, right?"
I nodded. "Yes. I usually don't get here until after five."
"Okay." Jisoo squeezed my hand again and locked her gaze with Lisa. The message passed wordlessly between them made my stomach knot tighter. There was dread there. Fear. And sympathy.
She was holding it together for me, but I wasn't the only one who stood shaking, numb from the cold and panic.
"Why don't you both wait in the car?" she suggested. "I need to ask more questions and make some calls."
"Come on, honey." Lisa escorted me to the car, our steps slow because she must have known I didn't trust my feet. She helped me into the passenger seat, then rounded the hood for the driver's side. The moment the door was closed, she pulled out her phone and put it on speaker.
Harrison answered on the first ring. "Hi, Lisa."
"Dad."
One word and Harrison heard the tremble in Lisa's voice. "What's wrong?"
"We came to get Leo from daycare. He's gone. Jill, the woman who watches him, took him."
"Oh, God." Harrison sucked in a sharp breath. "Call Jisoo."
"Already did. They're pushing an AMBER Alert."
"I'll make some calls too." Without another word, Harrison ended the call.
Lisa's fingers flew across the screen, pulling up another contact. Again, she left it on speaker.
"Thank you for calling The Rosie Inn. How can I help you?" Rosie answered.
"Rosie. It's Lisa." She repeated the same message and when Rosie gasped on the line, I had to squeeze my eyes shut to keep from crying.
"What can I do?" Rosie asked.
"Help us get the word out. The more people looking for them, the better."
"On it."
Lisa sighed and stared at her phone, like she wanted to make more calls but couldn't find the strength to repeat the truth again.
"Is this a bad dream?" I whispered.
She set the phone on her thigh and looked to me, her own eyes full of unshed tears. "It has to be."
"What if we don't find him?"
"Don't go there." She took my hand, gripping it so fiercely that it hurt my knuckles. But I clung to the pain, clung to her, so that I stayed here, in this car, and didn't take a step down an unthinkable road. "We'll find him."
"We'll find him." There was no confidence in my voice. Only fear.
The two of us sat together in the cold car, watching as Jisoo and her team rushed back and forth between the daycare center and Jill's house. A crowd was gathering outside the daycare's doors.
The two women from the office had come outside, both bundled in coats. They made sure to keep their heads down and not glance our direction as we sat motionless, our short breaths curling into white wisps in the car. Neither of us thought to turn on the engine, to crank the heat. We were both too stunned.
I sat and stared through the windshield, a prayer running through my mind on loop.
Find him. Find him. Please, let us find him.
"We left his stuff." Lisa's words startled me as she burst out of the car, running to the sidewalk.
I'd grabbed Leo's car seat and diaper bag from the nursery. When had I set them down? Before or after we'd gone to Jill's? I couldn't remember now. Every minute seemed fuzzy, every second like a lifetime.
A fresh wave of dizziness hit, swirling around the what-ifs that I refused to let myself think, let alone voice.
Lisa picked up Leo's things, carrying them to the backseat. Then she returned to the driver's seat and, this time, turned the key.
"I can't sit here," she murmured. The heat had barely begun to flow from the vents before she was out of the car once more, this time stalking toward Jisoo.
Jisoo stood in Jill's driveway, talking on the phone.
Lisa walked right to her, waiting for her to end the call. The moment she put her phone away, the garage door at Jill's opened. It was empty. Where there should have been a car, there were only shadows.
Where would she have gone? Leo didn't have his car seat. What if she got into an accident? Had she gone into town? Maybe she'd ventured downtown for a coffee.
My hand found the door handle and I pushed it open, but before I could step outside, a blaring alarm sounded from my phone. The noise echoed through the air, not just from my phone, but from all the other people.
The AMBER Alert.
For my son.
That shrill sound slashed through my body, slicing to my heart. I clutched my chest, willing my heart to keep beating. Find him. Please, find him.
Two cars pulled into the parking lot, both at almost the exact same time. Other parents were beginning to show to pick up their own children. Their faces were clouded in confusion and sudden worry before they each rushed inside.
Except inside, they'd find their children.
While I had not.
A rush of energy lit my nerve endings into a buzz. Sitting in this car, waiting, was no longer an option. I shoved outside, wrapping my arms around my waist, and hurried to join Lisa.
She saw me and swallowed hard, then held out a hand.
I took it and faced Jisoo. "I can't sit here. I'm going crazy."
"We've got everyone in the department looking. The alert's out there. Let's hope we get a call."
"What if I just headed into town? Maybe I'll bump into her. Maybe she went to the store or Christmas shopping. She said she'd be back before I showed up. It's almost five."
"It would be better if you stayed here," Jisoo said. "In case we need information."
"You could call me." My eyes watered. "Please. Please don't make me sit here and watch. If this was Hudson . . ."
"Okay." She blew out a deep breath. "All right. Keep your phone close."
"I will." I moved to take a step, but before I could walk away, Lisa's hand shot out and clasped around my elbow.
"Wait, honey."
"What?" I spun. "Are you coming too?"
"We need to tell Jisoo the whole story."
"What whole story?" she asked.
It took me a moment to read her face. Then realization hit me and my stomach did a cartwheel.
Jiyong. My parents. The woman who'd tried to blackmail them for money.
"Do you think this is related?" I asked Lisa.
"I don't know." Her forehead furrowed. "But if it is, Jisoo needs the truth."
All this time, we'd waited for my parents to contact us. We'd endured their silence, hoping for the best possible outcome. Except what if that had been a mistake? What if Leo had been a target for months? What if we could have stopped this from happening?
"Jennie." Jisoo placed her hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of my head. "Talk to me."
"Last month, around Thanksgiving, my parents showed up in Quincy. Our relationship is . . . strained. They came because a woman was blackmailing them. She threatened to expose Leo's father's name. To tell people who his father is."
"Who is his father?" she asked.
I looked to Lisa.
Lisa was Leo's. In all of the important parts of that label, Lisa was Leo's dada.
They just didn't share the same DNA.
"His name is Jiyong Kwon," I said, then told her the whole story.
Jisoo planted her hands on her hips. "Could they have taken Leo? Jiyong or his wife or her family?"
"I don't know." Maybe they wanted him after all. Or maybe this was Jiyong's wife's punishment for his infidelity.
"Chances are, Jill has him," Jisoo said. "You said she loves him. The daycare owner confirmed that Leo's her favorite, by far. Given that, my hunch is that she's probably overstepped. She took him on a walk to a park or downtown or to visit a friend."
"But . . ." Lisa voiced the doubts written on Jisoo's face.
"I need to know what happened with the woman in New York," she said.
"Okay." With shaking hands, I scrolled through my contacts and found my father's name. I tapped it and raised the phone to my ear, holding my breath as it rang. My heartbeat was so loud and hard that I felt my pulse blast through my veins.
"Jennie," he answered.
"What happened with the woman who was blackmailing you?"
"You made it clear that you didn't care about the outcome. You had your chance—"
"My son is missing." My voice cracked. "What happened? Please."
"What do you mean, missing?"
"Just tell me!" I screamed the words, the hold on my sanity beginning to break.
Before I could hear my father's response, Lisa ripped the phone from my hand. "Talk. Now."
A tear sped down my cheek as I stared up at Lisa. Her jaw ticked and her nostrils flared at whatever my father said. Then she dropped the phone from her ear and ended the call.
"What?"
"He refused to pay. Told her to fuck off. Hasn't heard from her since."
"Oh, God." A hand flew to my mouth to hold in a sob.
How could I have been so foolish? In the past weeks, I'd let myself have hope. I'd let myself be blind. My father had never intended to help me. Not once.
I was about to crash to the sidewalk when a strong arm banded around my back, holding me up. "He called her bluff. And she called his."
"Does he have a name?" Jisoo asked.
Lisa shook her head. "No. He didn't get one."
"This is my fault," I whispered. "I should have dealt with it myself."
"No. This isn't on you." Lisa took my face in her hands, her thumbs wiping furiously to dry the tears. "We made this decision together."
"It was the wrong decision."
The anguish on her face only made my tears fall faster. "I know."
"What do we do? Where is he?"
"We'll find him." Lisa pulled me to her chest, holding tight as she spoke to Jisoo. "What do we do?"
"I know you don't want to hear this, but I need you both to wait."
I growled into Lisa's chest, the terror morphing to frustration and despair. "I can't sit in that car and do nothing. I can't watch mothers walk into the center and pick up their children. I can't."
"Walk to town if you want," Jisoo said. "But we've got a lot of people looking for Jill. I'll check in with the team and be back with an update shortly."
"Then let's go." Lisa let me go and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk as we set off toward Main.
My legs were stiff and wobbly over the first two blocks, but then they began to warm and my strides lengthened. We walked in silence but the dull scream in my head grew louder with each step.
If my father had no idea who the woman was who'd tried to blackmail him, there was one person who would.
I stopped so abruptly that my hand slipped from Lisa's firm grasp.
"What's wrong?"
"We have to know who this woman was. Even if it's not her, we have to know." The time for burying my head in the sand was over. I'd made the mistake thinking that in Montana I was unreachable. Maybe this had nothing to do with the blackmail but I wasn't going to take that chance.
"You're going to call Jiyong," Lisa guessed.
I nodded and dug out my phone, finding the number I'd hidden under a fake name.
"Yes," he answered, his voice as cold as the winter air.
"Who knows about us?"
"No one."
"Someone," I corrected. "Because someone is trying to blackmail my family for money to keep my son's paternity a secret. Who?"
"Shit," he hissed.
"Who is it, Jiyong?"
"I don't know."
My fury spiked. "Don't you dare lie to me. This involves my son. I promised you I'd be quiet, I walked away, but you will tell me. Or my next phone call will be to your wife."
"Do that and I will take your child."
"You will never touch my son. I will use every dollar of my millions to ruin your life." Whatever it took to keep Leo safe. If that meant doing my father's bidding, so be it. "Who?"
The other end of the line went silent. So quiet I wasn't sure if he was still there. But then he breathed and I knew he'd chosen self-preservation over his secrets. "No one knew about us."
"Then why did the FBI stop by my house before I left the city? Someone has to know, Jiyong. Who?"
There was a rustling noise in the background, then the closing of a door. "When did the FBI approach you? Why didn't you tell me?"
"We weren't exactly on speaking terms. And I told them nothing."
"What, exactly, did the FBI agent say?" There was an edge to his voice. Fear. Good. I was fucking terrified. He could be scared too.
"Nothing. The agent asked if I knew you. I told her I didn't." A half-truth. By that point, Jiyong had been dead to me. "I didn't realize you were being investigated."
"I'm not."
Liar. "If the FBI knows, then someone else does."
"Maybe a friend of yours. Someone who'd know you had money and thought they could con you out of some."
"No. I told you before I left, I didn't tell anyone we were together." Because he'd asked me not to. And I was a goddamn idiot.
"It certainly wasn't me," he said.
My free hand balled into a fist. "Other than your wife, who would care that I had your child?"
"It is not my wife."
"Then who? Please?" I hated begging this man, but for Leo, I'd drop to my knees if that meant getting him home safe.
"It might be this woman I was seeing. We weren't together long. Six months. My time with her began shortly after my time with you. She was . . . demanding."
"You mean she knew you were married."
"Yes," he muttered.
"How would this woman know about me?"
"I don't know," he said. "Unless she had me followed. I wouldn't put it past her."
He'd come to my townhouse twice after our breakup. Once, the night he'd asked me to forget his name. The night he'd offered me money. The night I'd told him about the baby. Then, just days later, he'd come to sign his parental rights away.
If she'd been following him, maybe she'd kept following me too. Out of jealousy? Spite? Curiosity? When I'd had Leo, she must have guessed that Jiyong was the father.
"A name. Give me her name."
"Jessica Jung."
"Jessica Jung," I repeated and Lisa immediately took out her own phone, moving two steps away to call Jisoo.
"Goodbye, Jiyong."
"Jennie." He stopped me before I could end the call. "This changes nothing."
"Nothing," I agreed and the line went dead.
Don't give up.
We'd find Leo. We had to find Leo.
"Chu's going to run her name," Lisa said. "See what she can find."
"If she came to Montana, I doubt she would have stayed in Quincy. Maybe we should call some other hotels in the area."
"There aren't many. The closest is fifty miles away." She held up a finger and scrolled through her phone. Then she dialed a number and pressed it to her ear. "Yeah, hi. My name is Lisa Manoban. I'm the owner of The Rosie Inn in Quincy. I had a guest who bailed on a room charge this week. I've been calling around because I guess she's done it to a few hotels in the area. Any chance you've got an Jessica Jung staying at your place?"
There was a pause, then Lisa clasped my hand and began marching down the sidewalk, retreating the way we'd come.
"No problem. Do me a favor, I'm going to call the local sheriff. Don't let her know I called. Appreciate it." She shoved her phone in her pocket and began to run.
Any other day and I'd have a hard time keeping pace, but adrenaline and fear had me matching her pace, stride for stride, as we sprinted for the daycare center.
We ran right for my car, Lisa hollering to Jisoo as she opened the door. "There's an Jessica Jung staying at the Mountain Motel on the way to Missoula."
Jisoo snapped her fingers at an officer and took off for her own SUV. "Follow us. Stay close."
Lisa whipped us out of the parking lot and when one of the cruisers tore away, with Jisoo right behind, she drove with white knuckles toward the highway.
The miles passed in a blur, but no matter how fast we drove, it wasn't fast enough. My knees bounced. My stomach churned.
"This is my fault. I should have called Jiyong sooner. At Thanksgiving."
"No," Lisa said. "This woman is crazy. If she really took Leo, she's crazy. You couldn't have stopped this."
"We could have paid her."
"And she would have asked for money until we had nothing left to give."
"What if she did something to him?" My voice was barely audible. "What if she hurt him?"
Lisa didn't answer. Probably because those same questions were in her mind.
So we drove in silence, speeding along the road, until a small, U-shaped motel came into view along the highway, tucked into a grove of evergreens.
I gasped. Three sheriff cars were in the parking lot, each with their lights flashing.
"Jisoo must have called it in."
I refused to blink as we got closer and closer, until Lisa slowed to ease off the highway.
An officer in a tan shirt and matching pants walked out of a room. Behind him, escorted by another cop in uniform, came a woman.
A blond woman about my height. Her hands were handcuffed behind her back.
"I know her." I shook my head, hardly believing my own eyes. "That's the FBI agent who came to talk to me."
"What?" Lisa said. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." What the hell?
Lisa parked beside a car with New York plates. The moment the tires were stopped, I was out my door. The sound that greeted me when my foot hit the pavement was the best sound I'd heard all day.
A cry. From a little boy.
My little boy.
I took off running. So did Lisa.
"Hold up." An officer held up his hands to stop us but we pushed past him anyway just as Jisoo came striding out of the hotel room with Leo in her arms.
"Thank God." I hauled him to my chest and burrowed my nose in his neck, peppering him with kisses. Then I felt over every inch of his body, making sure he was whole. "You're okay."
"He's okay." Lisa wrapped her arms around us both, her cheek on Leo's hair. "We found him."
We found him.
"You're never leaving my sight again," I said, holding Leo tighter.
Lisa and I clung to him, even as he wiggled and squirmed to be set free, only pulling away when a familiar voice carried from the hallway.
"I wouldn't have let anything happen to him." Jill, handcuffed and being pushed out of the room by an officer, had tears streaming down her face. The moment she spotted us, she froze. Her mouth opened and closed, like a fish out of water gasping for air. But before she could speak or make some bullshit excuse, I spun with my son and strode toward the Volvo.
Lisa wasn't far behind.
Neither was Jisoo.
"Is there any reason we need to stay?" I asked her.
"No. Go home. We're taking them both into custody and I'll question them myself."
"Thank you."
She stepped closer, running a finger over Leo's cheek. "Drive safely. I'll see you soon."
Lisa put her hand on her shoulder, then she took Leo and buckled him in his seat.
I slid into the backseat, waiting for Lisa to get behind the wheel.
She met my gaze in the rearview.
Then drove us home.