Hold My Hand (Sequel to Saved: Adopted by Brendon Urie)

Chapter 23

The police were eventually able piece together the footage.

First:

12:47 — Abby and Bonnie leave the National Gallery together.

Then:

12:51 — Bonnie is visible near Trafalgar Square.

Then:

12:52 — Abby is visible approximately twenty metres away.

Then:

12:53 — Bonnie turns around.

A woman approaches Abby.

They speak.

The woman takes Abby's hand.

And Abby goes with her.

Zack was watching the monitor when he saw it. Brendon was watching through his phone.

"That's not Bonnie," Brendon said.

The officer looked at Zack.

"No."

Zack stepped closer to the screen.

"That's not someone she knows," Zack said.

And now the entire situation has changed.

Until this point, Brendon and Zack had been terrified that something had happened to both of them.

Now they know:

Someone took Abby away from Bonnie.

And now Brendon and Zack now realize that the police have begun treating his daughter's disappearance as a possible abduction.

He had spent the last several hours telling himself there had to be an ordinary explanation.

There isn't one anymore.

--

Abby POV

Abby knew she was supposed to stay where Bonnie could see her.

Bonnie had said it a hundred times.

Not literally a hundred times, but enough that Abby could hear her voice in her head whenever they were somewhere crowded.

Stay where I can see you.

So when Bonnie stopped to answer her phone, Abby stopped too.

For a moment.

Then someone bumped into her.

A man carrying a backpack apologized, and another group of tourists moved between Abby and Bonnie. Kids in school uniforms pushed past.

She couldn't see her anymore.

Abby stood on her toes.

Nothing.

"Bonnie?"

No answer.

She turned around.

The crowd seemed enormous now.

People everywhere.

Tourists talking. Cameras clicking. Buses moving past. Someone laughing loudly behind her.

She took a few steps back toward where she'd last seen Bonnie.

Still nothing.

Her stomach tightened.

"Bonnie?"

She went to pull her phone from her pocket.

It wasn't in her pocket. It wasn't in her jacket or her jeans.