HIS NEIGHBOR WOULDN’T STOP REPORTING THE SOUND OF A GIRL CRYING INSIDE HIS HOUSE—THEN HE HID BENEATH HIS DAUGHTER’S BED AND HEARD HER PLEAD FOR SOMEONE TO SPARE HER

Thomas’s hand dropped away from his mouth.

For one disoriented moment, his mind refused to connect that voice to the woman who poured coffee beside him every morning. The same woman who kissed him goodbye before work. The same woman who repeatedly insisted Lucia was “just struggling with teenage drama.”