PART 2 — The Message
The strange car.
The missing dress.
The hoodie.
And the fact that Maddie refused to look at me.
I waited until the shower stopped.
Then I knocked softly on her door.
“Maddie?”
No answer.
I opened the door slightly.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed, still wearing the hoodie.
Her hair was wet.
Her green dress was nowhere in sight.
“Sweetheart?”
She looked at me.
Her eyes were red.
Not from makeup.
From crying.
I sat beside her.
“I’m not angry.”
She stared at the floor.
“I just want to know you’re safe.”
“I am.”
“Where’s Tyler?”
She swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
That answer frightened me more than anything else.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“He left.”
“When?”
“Before midnight.”
“Why?”
She didn’t answer.
Then her phone vibrated.
Maddie looked at the screen.
The color drained from her face.
I reached for her hand.
“Who is it?”
She turned the phone toward me.
There was a message from an unknown number.
You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone.
I looked at Maddie.
“What does that mean?”
She immediately locked the screen.
“Mom, please.”
“No.”
I kept my voice calm.
“Something happened tonight.”
She began crying again.
“I can’t tell you.”
“You can tell me anything.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because if I tell you, someone will get hurt.”
I froze.
“Who?”
She shook her head.
“I can’t.”
Her phone vibrated again.
Another message.
This time, the sender wasn’t unknown.
Tyler.
The message contained only five words:
Don’t let her answer him.
I looked at Maddie.
“Who is ‘him’?”
She didn’t respond.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed Tyler standing outside a gas station.
His tuxedo jacket was gone.
His shirt was soaked.
And there was blood on his collar.
I jumped to my feet.
“Where is he?”
Maddie grabbed my wrist.
“Mom, don’t call the police.”
“Your boyfriend is bleeding!”
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”
“What happened?”
She finally broke down.
“He found out.”
“Found out what?”
She covered her face.
“About his father.”
I stared at her.
“What does Tyler’s father have to do with this?”
Maddie looked toward the window.
Then whispered:
“Everything.”
Before I could ask another question, headlights appeared outside our house.
The same kind of car that had dropped Maddie off.
It stopped at the curb.
No one got out.
My heart began pounding.
Then the headlights went dark.
Maddie’s phone vibrated again.
She looked at the screen.
This time, she didn’t hide it.
The message said:
I know you’re with your mother.
A second message appeared immediately afterward.
Tell her to stay inside.
I walked to the window.
“Maddie, call 911.”
She grabbed my arm.
“Mom, wait.”
“Why?”
“Because Tyler told me something before he left.”
“What?”
She stared at me through tears.
“He said the person following us wasn’t after him.”
I felt a chill run down my spine.
“Then who were they after?”
Maddie slowly looked at me.
“You.”
I couldn’t speak.
Outside, the car remained completely still.
Then its driver’s door opened.
A man stepped out.
He didn’t approach the house.
He simply stood beneath the streetlight.
And when he lifted his face toward our upstairs window, I recognized him.
It was Tyler’s father.
The man I had trusted for years.
Maddie whispered behind me:
“Mom…”
I turned.
She was holding something in her hand.
A small flash drive.
“I took this from Tyler’s car.”
I stared at it.
“What is on it?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Then she whispered:
“But Tyler said if anything happened to him, I had to give it to you.”
Outside, Tyler’s father started walking toward our front door.
And for the first time that night, I understood why my daughter had come home wearing another boy’s hoodie.
She hadn’t been hiding a romance.
She had been hiding evidence.
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