My Family Abandoned Me in the Woods novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Girl in the Green Coat

I pulled the quilt up to my chin and waited.

Nolan did not turn around.

"Your sister tagged Sable Creek in a stream on Thanksgiving morning," he said. "I was at my desk. I saw the tag and I thought, no. Not here."

"Nolan."

"I've waited twelve years for someone to say that name again. I drove to the lot, and I saw a woman get off a van with a duffel, walking into it alone."

"I hadn't."

"I know that now." He rubbed his eyes. "I didn't know it then. I watched your sister film you. I watched your mother laugh. And then I heard Brooke Ruddock say her own name out loud, on a stream, in front of forty thousand people."

The room felt very cold.

"I've known her name since I was twenty-two," he said. "I've known your name longer."

"How?"

"The search party." He finally turned. "I was a volunteer. I was twenty-two, and my brother was fifteen. There was a list at the command table, the people who'd been questioned. The kids who were supposed to be with him were Brooke Ruddock, fourteen, and two friends."

I could not move.

"And a sister," he said. "Callie Ruddock, sixteen. She told the sergeant she'd been home all night."

"Nolan."

"The sergeant wrote it down. Nobody checked."

"I was there," I said.

I heard myself say it, in a voice that wasn't mine.

His face did not change.

"I was there at the lot when they left him," I said. "Brooke said it was a joke. She said he'd walk back in an hour. I was sixteen and I was scared of her friends, and I let them drive off. I went home and I lay in my bed and I did not sleep."

"And when the police came?"

"My mother told me what to say. And I said it."

← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend