Page 37 of Forged in Flames (Made of Steel 2)

"You're fucking crazy," Eli said.

"Fine, you don't want to talk about Don? Then let's talk about Sadie. How could you not connect the dots? There was a missing persons case for her. It was all laid out for you. All you had to do was look."

Missing persons case? I was in the foster care system. Don Roberts had even gone to the lengths to adopt me. I wasn't missing.

"My job was about breaking Don. It had nothing to do with..."

"It had everything to do with her!"

Another crunching noise, as an arrow landed in the dry wall again.

"Fuck!" Eli yelled.

"What happened to that case?"

"It was dropped almost as soon as it was filed. Kids from foster care run away all the time. No one was looking for her."

"Someone was looking for her. Or else the report wouldn't have been filed."

Crunch.

"I care about her too, okay?" Eli said.

Crunch.

"Jesus Christ stop shooting arrows at my head!"

"Tell me what you know!"

"The only reason I even know about the damn file was because it showed up on my desk a few months ago."

"Who gave you the file?"

"I don't know. Look, would you just untie me and I'll tell you everything that I do know?"

Crunch.

"After you got the file, why didn't you put the pieces together right away?" V said.

"Because it was a case about a little girl named Summer Brooks. She didn't look the same. She had a different name. Honestly, I thought the file landed on my desk by mistake. I didn't think anything of it at first. There was no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. I had looked up Sadie Davis when I was first put on the case. The adoption paperwork was sound. Everything was perfectly legit. There really was no reason for me to think anything was going on."

"What about the bruises on her neck! And the scar on her stomach? And her broken bones!"

I cringed and put my hand on my stomach.

"She did a hell of a job hiding it. What do you want me to say? I didn't know. I thought she was there by choice. And the only reason I knew that the missing persons case was dropped was because I went digging," Eli said. "Because I cared about her. Because I didn't want her to have to keep living with a criminal. I was the one that took the time to figure out what the hell was going on. But by the time I connected the dots, it was too late. She was gone. When she turned up here, I uprooted my whole life to come here and make sure she was okay. So don't you dare fucking act like I don't care about her."

"You think you love her? You don't even know her!"

Crunch.

"I'll know her better than you ever will," Eli said.

Crunch.

"You're shooting at me because you know you can't have her. You're hiding behind a fucking mask. No one in their right mind would want to be with you."

Crunch.

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