Page 103 of The Retreat

“Cassie what?” I don’t get what he means.

“She ran off.” Colin paces through the kitchen. “I have to find her.”

My brain tries to process what he just said. “Who told you? What happened?”

“My mom called, demanding that I bring her back because of course it’s my fault she’s gone.” His voice shakes as he speaks. “They don’t know where she is but—” His words shudder. “She’s eighteen now, and she could be on the street or taken by some asshole my father tried to set her up with. I could hear my dad screaming in the background. He’s said he’s going to cut her off if she doesn’t come home tonight.”

I cross the room to wrap him up in a hug. “We will find her. If your dad cut her off, she won’t have a credit card, so she will surface pretty quickly.” My mind reels trying to come up with a plan. “Let’s call Oliver. He has that PI who stalked us. I bet that guy can find her. She will be fine.”

He gives over his weight, nearly collapsing on me. “I will never forgive myself if she isn’t okay. I can’t let anything happen to her. She’s my onl–”

“Nothing is going to happen to her. We will find her. I promise.”

“Why didn’t I let her move in? Why didn’t I help earlier? I knew my fucking father was looking for someone else for her to marry, and I didn’t do a fucking thing about it.” He sobs into my shoulder, and my heart breaks.

“You couldn’t have done anything. Before she turned eighteen, you would have been harboring a runaway. She took matters into her own hands, and you couldn’t have known she was planning on doing that before she finished high school.” I squeeze him tighter, trying to give him any comfort at all.

“I failed her.” He barely can speak between choked sobs.

“She’s taking her power like you are. I’m sure she’s safe somewhere with friends or something. We will find her.” I walk him back out to the living room and get him seated so I can call my brother.

“I know where she is,” Oliver says without even saying hello.

“Cassie?!” I ask, unable to believe Oliver, of all people, would know.

“Olivia just called me, and I told her to call you next, but you beat her to it.” Oliver sounds more annoyed than anything else.

“Why would Olivia know where she is?” I ask, putting him on speaker phone so Colin can listen in.

“Because I guess they worked it out. Olivia took her under her wing after the last disaster of a family dinner, and started talking to her about why she moved to London, and that she’d help her the day she turned eighteen.”

“What?!” Colin and I say at the same time.

“She didn’t tell anyone. Neither of them did. Olivia said it wasn’t her place, and that Cassie didn’t want anyone to know.” Oliver is nonplussed about it.

“Not even her brother?” I ask the question I know Colin wants to.

“I guess she wanted to feel like she was making her own solution. Cassie was going to call Colin, but their father cut off her phone service?—”

I cut Oliver off. “He cut off a ‘missing’ girl’s phone service?”

“Sounds like a move out of our father’s playbook, doesn’t it?” Oliver scoffs. “But she is on the plane. She can’t access Wi-Fi or anything else until she’s with Olivia in London because your father froze her cards too, and nothing takes cash.”

Colin growls and covers his face with his hands.

I put a hand on his thigh, squeezing lightly. “And Olivia is going there to pick her up?” I glance at the time, like I’d know what time it is in London. “Isn’t it, like, the middle of the night there?”

Colin is on his phone looking it up.

“About one in the morning. It’s fine. Olivia was still up. They’d arranged this and weren’t going to tell anyone until she was safely on the plane so no one could intercept the message. You know how these things are with wiretaps and whatnot,” Oliver says it so flippantly, like our parents just have all our phones wiretapped.

“Is that a thing?” I ask, now wondering about all the things I’ve said over FaceTime to Colin.

“No, I’ve had ours monitored since we moved out,” Oliver scoffs. “But clearly I will have to add your husband to that list since you’re sleeping together.” Oliver got off the phone, and we sat in silence.

“Do you want me to call my sister?”

Colin shakes his head. “No. I don’t know what that would do. I’m just hurt she didn’t tell me.”

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