Chapter 172

Agnes

The rest of our vacation passed in a blur. We spent our days in the sun, splashing in the ocean and exploring the town, and our evenings were spent under the stars with nothing but each other for company.

It was nice, and it was even more relaxing than I had hoped.

But when we finally arrived home after hours of travel, sunburnt and exhausted, our own beds never looked so inviting. Thea fell asleep literally mid-sentence while I was tucking her in, and Elijah and I weren’t far behind her.

It was strange how quickly we fell back into our old routines after the honeymoon. Elijah returned to his pack duties, Thea went back to school, and I dove headfirst into my work, eager to transform my vacation sketches into actual garments.

The timing couldn’t have been better—the Goddess Festival was coming up in just a few weeks, marking the transition from spring to summer. My new line, which I’d brainstormed during every free moment on vacation, would be perfect for the celebration. It featured florals and flowy fabrics, just the kind of thing for this time of year.

I spent long hours at my sewing machine, my fingers flying over fabric, my mind occupied with pleats and hems rather than mating bonds and missing daughters and DNA tests that still hadn’t come back yet.

It was easier that way. Working kept the worry at bay, quieted the questions that hovered at the edges of my consciousness whenever I let my guard down.

On the third day back, I was in the middle of pinning a particularly tricky pattern piece when my phone rang. I ignored it at first, reluctant to break my concentration, but when it immediately rang again, I sighed and reached for it.

“Hello?”

“Is this Luna Agnes?” a somewhat familiar male voice responded.

“Yes, this is she.”

“This is the detective from the police department. We’d like you to come down to the station. We’ve had a development regarding your missing daughter case.”

My heart stopped. Then it started again, pounding so hard I could feel it in my fingertips, my toes, even in the back of my throat. I would have dropped my phone from the way my hands suddenly went slick with sweat had I not dug my nails so hard into the plastic that it hurt.

“What kind of development?” I managed to ask. Please don’t let it be bad. Please don’t let it be bad.

The detective hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’d rather discuss it in person. How soon can you get here?”

My stomach dropped, but I nodded even though the detective couldn’t see me. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I replied, already on my feet, patterns and fabric forgotten.

I called Elijah on my way out the door, and he met me at the police station, his suit slightly rumpled from running out of a meeting at the drop of a hat. When I looked into his eyes and saw the hard glint to them, I swallowed down the hope that had been building since the detective’s call.

Instead, I told myself that it might be nothing, that I shouldn’t get excited. It could be a false lead. Or it could be… far worse.

But still, I couldn’t help the flutter of that tiny bird in my chest as we walked into the station hand in hand.

The detective, the same man who had helped us before, was waiting for us when we entered the station. He led us to his office in the back, which looked a lot more cluttered than it had last time. Somehow, seeing that gave me another flicker of hope; it showed that he was working hard, and working a lot.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” he said, taking his seat across from us. “As I mentioned on the phone, we’ve had some new information come to light regarding your daughter’s case.”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Elijah’s hand found mine under the table, squeezing gently.

“As you know, we’ve been conducting regular volunteer-led search parties in the areas surrounding where your daughter was last seen,” the detective continued. “Last week, one of our volunteers found something that I believe might be significant.”

He reached into a drawer and pulled out a clear evidence bag. Inside was something that looked like a dirty rag—a small, shapeless lump of fabric so faded and weather-beaten I couldn’t immediately identify what it had once been.

“Do you recognize this?” the detective asked, sliding the bag across the table to me.

I picked it up with trembling hands, turning it over to examine it more closely. It was pitiful, really—whatever it had been was now just a tattered scrap, mud-stained and torn almost beyond recognition.

But then I saw them. The buttons. Two small, mismatched buttons—one yellow with a flower pattern, one blue with tiny stars. My breath caught in my throat as recognition slammed into me.

“It was a bunny,” I whispered, my vision blurring with tears. “It was her bunny.”

Elijah leaned closer, peering at the raggedy thing in the bag. “You’re sure?”

I nodded, unable to speak past the lump in my throat. My fingers traced the outline of the buttons through the plastic.

“I made it for her while I was pregnant,” I finally managed. “I couldn’t find matching buttons in the sewing kit I had, so I used these two different ones. I always planned to fix it someday, but....” My voice trailed off. I couldn’t bring myself to finish—to say out loud that she’d been stolen in the middle of the night, still clutching her toy to her chest with that iron grip that all babies have.

When I looked up, I saw that the detective was watching me closely. “Where was it found?” I asked, pressing the bag to my chest as if I could make my daughter reappear just from that simple gesture.

“In the forest, about fifteen miles from the edge of the pack border,” the detective said. “Near the entrance to an old cave system.”

A wave of dizziness washed over me. Fifteen miles. My baby had been taken fifteen miles away into the forest. Into caves.

“We’re organizing a thorough search of the cave system,” the detective continued. “It’s extensive, and parts of it are difficult to access, but we’re bringing in specialists. The search will begin tomorrow morning.”

I stared at the tattered bunny in my hands, trying to process what this meant. My daughter’s possession, found at the entrance to a cave system deep in the woods. After seven years.

“We’d like to invite you both to join the search party,” the detective said. “Sometimes having family members present can be… beneficial.”

Because they might need someone to identify remains. The thought sliced through me.

“We’ll be there,” Elijah said firmly, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. He glanced at me, and his face softened. “If that’s what you want, my love.”

My throat tightened. His words—my love—were comforting, but right now, I hardly heard them. Still, I nodded, choking out, “Y-Yes. I want to be there.”

The detective nodded and wrote some notes down on a piece of paper.

“The more help, the better,” he said, sliding the paper across the table. “Here’s the meeting location and time. Wear sturdy boots and bring water. The terrain is challenging.”

I barely heard him. My eyes remained fixed on the ruined bunny, on those two mismatched buttons that had somehow survived seven years of exposure to the elements. I’d chosen those buttons so carefully, wanting my baby to have something unique, something special. Something made with love by her mother’s own hands.

And now it was the only proof I had that she had ever existed at all.

Elijah thanked the detective and guided me out of the station, his arm warm and steady around my waist. I clutched the evidence bag to my chest, unwilling to let it go even for a moment.

“We’re going to find her, Agnes,” Elijah said as we reached the car. “I promise you.”

I nodded mechanically, but as I stared down at the tattered remains of my daughter’s bunny, a cold, heavy weight settled in my stomach. After seven years in those caves, what would be left to find? A child couldn’t survive alone in the wilderness, especially not a baby.

No, I knew what we would likely discover tomorrow. Not my daughter, not a miracle reunion, but bones. Small bones scattered across a cave floor, picked clean by time and animals.

All that would remain of the child I had carried and loved and lost.