It's been five years since the sudden disappearance of Cora Cadigan's mother. Five years since the case was closed before it even began.
In the final summer before the end of high school, Cora knows it's her last opportunity to find the answers she...
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"What?"
I'd entered an alternate universe; the morphine has well and truly kicked in. I'm dreaming all of this, and soon I'm going to wake up. What a terrible joke my life has become, I think, that even my mind likes to play tricks on me.
I pinch myself and the pain registers instantly. I'm awake; I'm alive. And so is my mother.
"Tea," I whisper, "are you—are you sure they aren't mistaken?"
She shakes her head, laughing happily. "They've identified her. And she's telling them who she is."
"Oh my god," Cameron says, leaning against the railing of the bed. His eyes flicker to mine and his face splits into a grin. "I'm calling the others!"
I cover my mouth, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. "No," I shake my head. "How? I was so sure — so sure — that Tom had—had—"
"She's alive, Cora," Teagan sits on the edge of my bed. "She's alive."
Alive.
Breathing.
Living.
Talking.
A relieved sob rips through my chest, and I cave into myself, falling against the pillows. Everything aches; my ribs, my arm. I don't even care. It feels like for the first time in years, that life couldn't get more perfect than this.
"Oh my god," I cry. "Oh, my god."
"She's coming here," Tea says. "Rhys told me to tell you she's coming in for observation. She's pretty shaken up. They found her—they found her in a locked room in Tom's house. He'd shackled her to the bed."
A locked room. The room I had tried to open downstairs. Mum had been behind that door all along whilst I trudged through the house?
"What's going to happen to Tom?" I demand.
"I'm not an expert, and Rhys couldn't tell me anything, but I don't see how he will get anything less than life in prison for this," Teagan squeezes my hand.
