Chapter 1

I had a beautiful daughter. She had just turned eighteen. Her closet was filled with all kinds of beautiful dresses, but because of a little monster, she would never have the chance to wear them again.

The little monster stood there, flipping me the middle finger with a smug grin.

"Your daughter’s life was cheap anyway. She got what she deserved! We’re minors. Our age is a get-out-of-jail-free card."

Marcus went mad. He grabbed a kitchen knife, wanting to trade his life for that bastard's.

But I held him back with all my strength. "One death is too easy for him. Both he and his mother must go to hell!"

I had an eighteen-year-old daughter named Chloe. Her name meant blooming and full of life.

She loved wearing dresses. Her closet was packed with them, all bought by Marcus and me. Marcus was the ultimate girl-dad, spoiling her every chance he got.

But all of that was gone now. Chloe lay in the dirt, her torn white dress covered in mud and blood. She was frozen in time, forever eighteen.

We realized Chloe was missing an hour after school ended.

Marcus had came home holding a giant princess plushie, excited to surprise her. He waited and waited, but when she didn't show up, he got anxious and told me to look for her.

I hadn't wanted Chloe to go out in the first place. The weather was terrible, and the sky was pitch black.

"Mom, I promise I'll be back in half an hour. I'll definitely beat Dad home!"

"I already made plans with Bella. You don't want your daughter to be a liar, do you?"

She had looked up at me with her innocent face, shaking my arm and begging.

"No lies. The weather is bad today. Just play for a bit and come straight back!"

I couldn't say no to her. Chloe was smart. Whenever she pouted, Marcus and I would melt instantly.

But an hour passed, and Chloe still wasn't home. I decided to check their "secret hideout."

I knew the place well. It was a wooded area right next to the community park. Chloe and Bella had decorated it like a fairytale forest, pretending they were princesses living there.

But when I arrived, no one was there. The decorations they had carefully set up were trashed, looking like they had been maliciously vandalized.

"Chloe! Chloe!"

I screamed her name, but there was only silence.

Panic set in. I ran around the subdivision, shouting Chloe's name over and over.

By the time dusk fell, I went to Bella's house. I knocked on the door for a long time before it finally opened.

"Bella came home early. She was exhausted and already fell asleep," Sarah, Bella's mom, said. She only opened the door a crack, blocking my view.

Before I could ask more, she hurriedly shut the door in my face.

I completely lost it. Chloe never wandered off on her own, and she would never disappear for this long. I called 911, but the dispatcher told me they couldn't do anything since she hadn't been missing for 24 hours. Marcus arrived shortly after, and we rushed to the security office to check the cameras.

The security guard, who usually bragged about "safety first," acted like we were making a big deal out of nothing. He reluctantly logged into the system and slowly scrolled through the footage.

"Sir, please, can you speed it up?"

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my voice steady. Beside me, Marcus clenched his fists, his jaw tight.

"What's the rush? A girl that age doesn't just vanish. She probably went to a party or something."

The guard's careless attitude snapped my last nerve. Just as I was about to scream at him, Marcus grabbed my arm.

"Sir, you're a parent too. I'm sure you understand how we feel," Marcus said, forcing a polite smile as he pulled two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and slipped them into the guard's pocket.

"Ah, right. Yeah, parent to parent, I get it. Let's see... is this the right time?"

The guard's eyes flickered. He smoothly pocketed the cash and quickly set the timestamp to 6:00 PM.

On the screen, Chloe was skipping along, holding Bella's hand as they entered the woods.

Twenty minutes later, Bella ran out of the woods alone, looking terrified. The guard pulled up the cameras from all four surrounding angles, but Chloe was nowhere to be seen.

A wave of dizziness hit me. I turned to Marcus. "I went to Bella's house. Her mom said she was asleep and wouldn't let me in."

Marcus's voice shook. "Bella knows something. We have to make her talk."