We moved to a small patio around the side of the café where Nora wouldn’t easily see us.
Every part of me hated it.
My daughter was alive only yards away.
I wanted to run inside.
Touch her face.
Hear her call me Mom.
But Elaine repeated the same warning.
“If you surprise her, she may panic and leave.”
That stopped me every time.
Elaine told us Nora had arrived at the shelter late one night.
She had almost nothing with her.
No phone.
Very little money.
No bag.
She was exhausted and frightened.
At first, she gave them a different name.
Weeks passed before she admitted she had family elsewhere.
Months passed before she admitted that she had disappeared when she was a teenager.
“She told you about us?” I asked.
“Eventually.”
“Then why didn’t you call the police?”
Elaine met my eyes.
“Because Nora was already an adult by the time she came to me. And she begged me not to contact anyone.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“You knew she was a missing person.”
“Not when she first arrived.”
“But you eventually knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing?”
Elaine remained calm.
“I encouraged her to contact you. Many times.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” she admitted. “It isn’t.”
I understood Michael’s anger.
Part of me felt it too.
But another part couldn’t stop thinking about one thing.
Nora had survived long enough to reach Elaine.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
Elaine looked toward the café again.
Then she began.
“When Nora was sixteen, she had secretly been seeing a nineteen-year-old named Caleb.”
The name meant nothing to me.
That made it worse.
Elaine explained that Nora had met him online after lying about her age.
They had been communicating for several months.
Nora knew Michael and I would never approve of her seeing someone older.
So she kept him hidden.
On the day she disappeared, Caleb convinced her to leave the beach with him.
Only for the weekend.
That was how he presented it.
Two days away.
A small adventure.
Something exciting.
Something that would supposedly prove she trusted him.
He told her to leave her phone behind so we couldn’t track her.
She left her sandals because she had been walking barefoot.
She climbed into his car wearing her swimsuit and the turquoise cover-up.
I pressed both hands over my mouth.
Michael looked physically ill.
“What happened?” he asked. “Why didn’t she come back?”
Elaine was silent for a moment.
“Because Caleb didn’t bring her back.”
At first, Nora believed they were simply staying away a little longer.
