Two officers stood on the porch.
“Ma’am, we need to speak to a Ms Layla,” one of them said.
Layla’s eyes darted around the room, panic blooming. My father stepped forward, shoulders squared, voice shaking but sure.
“I called them,” he said. “Someone had to.”
Layla looked gutted, staring at our father in disbelief.
“Dad, please —”
He cut her off.
Two officers stood on the porch.
“There’s no hiding from this anymore, Layla.”
My sister closed her eyes, took a breath, and nodded. “I’m right here.”
Bill moved toward me, and I put my arm around him. “It’s okay,” I murmured.
One officer turned to Bill, gentler now. “We’re reopening your case, son. We’ll need your statement.”
Bill nodded, glancing at Layla, then at me.
Layla’s gaze caught mine, full of pleading. “Megan —”
I shook my head. “You’ll tell the truth. That’s all that’s left.”
“We’re reopening your case, son.”
Layla went with them quietly, glancing back once at the family she’d broken.
When the door closed, the silence was enormous. My father sank onto the couch, head in his hands. My mother just stared at the empty space where Layla had stood.
Bill stood in the hallway, his hands shaking.
“Did you really look for me?” he asked quietly.
I nodded, tears slipping down my face. “Every single day.”
He swallowed, searching my eyes. “Why didn’t you give up?”
“Did you really look for me?”
I stepped closer, my hand brushing his shoulder. “Because you’re my son. That’s not something you ever let go.”
He nodded and let me pull him in. He was taller than me now, broad through the shoulders, nothing like the little boy I’d last held in my kitchen doorway. But when his arms came around me, something inside me recognized him instantly.
But I knew this wasn’t the end of anything —it was the beginning. Fifteen years couldn’t be undone in a single moment.
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