The night sixteen-year-old Emma Mercer was thrown out of her grandfather’s house, the Ohio air was cold enough to hurt.
She stood barefoot in the hallway clutching her school backpack while Richard Mercer pointed toward the front door.
“Get out. Your room belongs to your cousin now.”
Emma stared at him.
“But Grandpa, Dad said I could stay here until he and Mom got back from Chicago.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“Your father doesn’t run my house.”
Behind him stood Emma’s aunt Denise.
Beside the staircase was Denise’s son Cody, already wearing Emma’s gaming headset around his neck.
Three days earlier, Daniel and Rachel Mercer had rushed to Chicago after Rachel’s mother suffered a stroke.
Daniel trusted his father to look after Emma.
Richard had promised she would be safe.
Now Emma’s suitcase sat open on the porch.
Someone had stuffed her clothes into a trash bag.
Her winter coat was missing.
Her charger was gone.
Even the silver necklace Rachel had given her was tangled among the clothes Cody had thrown aside.
Denise folded her arms.
“Cody needs the room. He’s had a difficult semester.”
Emma stared at her.
“So where am I supposed to sleep?”
“Your father has money. Call him.”
“My phone is dead.”
Richard opened the front door.
“Then find somewhere to charge it.”
Emma looked at the clock.
12:43 a.m.
For a moment, she thought one of them would stop this.
Nobody did.
She picked up her backpack and the trash bag.
Then she stepped outside.
The door closed behind her.
Click.
The lock turned.
Emma stood beneath the porch light staring at the house where she had spent Christmases, birthdays, and summer weekends.
Then she started walking.
Twenty minutes later, she reached a closed pharmacy.
There was an outdoor electrical outlet near the entrance.
Emma found the emergency cable she always kept in her backpack and plugged in her phone.
When the screen finally turned on, she called one person.
Her father.
Daniel answered on the second ring.
“Em? What’s wrong?”
Emma tried to speak.
Instead, she started crying.
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