Page 1 of Secrets Along the Shore
THE ONES I LEFT TO DIE
JAIME JO WRIGHT
PROLOGUE
AFTER
The grave followedme wherever I went. It didn’t matter that I escaped. What mattered was they were never found. At seventeen, I had years of therapy ahead of me. Years of blocked memories and PTSD from the trauma of being abducted, held, and tormented. But ten years later, most thought all of that was behind me. That I had moved on.
“Remarkable.”
“Doing so well . . .”
“She’s heroic.”
No I wasn’t. I was a coward. I had run. I had left them behind. I had moved forward while they—they had disappeared into time. Missing files closed as cold. Ice cold. Names that were remembered only by those who still missed them, who still believed in that tiny spark of hope that they were still alive.
But I knew the truth that I was not remarkable.
I was not doing so well.
I was anything but heroic.
So I held onto it—the grave—because that’s where they had to be by now. No one could survive what I had. Not for ten years.
But I was determined to find them.
Even if it was just their bones.
CHAPTER
ONE
BEFORE
It wasall over the news.
Young girl gone missing.
Eighteen years of age.
Didn’t show up for work.
It had been twenty-four hours.
The police had been called. An alert had gone out. Social media was rife with theories and possibilities.
She’s my neighbor’s kid!
Nice girl and pretty. I can see why she may have been taken. We need better protection from our school systems.
I think I saw her at First and Main street yesterday at 2:00 p.m.
No. That wasmydaughter you saw.
I swear it was her!
They found her!
