The ringing stopped, but the relief she experienced didn’t last long, as the phone came to life again a second later.
Concern sparked in her belly. This couldn’t be good. Three calls. Biting back her anger, she picked up the phone and said, “What do you want, Hank?”
“Sarah! Thank God!”
Her body instantly tensed, and not just because she was talking to her estranged husband. There was deep worry lining that gruff voice—and Hank wasn’t prone to worrying. When a problem arose, he brushed it off, letting someone else take care of it, and it was usually his wife who ended up cleaning his messes.
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately. “Is it one of the children?”
He paused for a long beat. “Have you spoken to Lana?”
That nagging feeling that had plagued her for more than a day came rushing back. “No, I haven’t. She was supposed to call me yesterday when she got to Florence, but she never did.”
“I was afraid of that.”
Sarah clutched the phone tighter, her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip. “What’s going on, Hank? Do you know why Lana didn’t call me?”
There was a deafening silence.
“Hank.”
“She’s disappeared,” he finally said.
Sarah’s heart stopped. “What do you mean, she’s disappeared?”
“She boarded the train in Paris, and nobody has seen her since. And this morning…I got a call.”
Terror swept through her like a flash flood. “Who from?”
“I don’t know.” Her husband sounded so distressed she had to fight a spark of sympathy. “Whoever it was, he said he’s got Lana. I didn’t believe him at first, but I’ve been calling around and I can’t find her, damn it! Her landlord said she hasn’t been back at her flat, her professors haven’t heard from her…it’s like she vanished into thin air.”
A chill shuddered through Sarah’s body. “I knew something was wrong,” she whispered. “When she didn’t call…I felt something was wrong. Oh, God. Hank, who could have taken her?”
Another beat. “We both know I have a lot of enemies, darling.”
Anger exploded in her stomach, not just because he’d called her darling, when, at the moment, he had no right to call her anything of the sort, but because she knew if Lana had disappeared, it was all Hank Kelley’s fault.
“What enemies?” she demanded. “Who has her?”
“I…don’t know.”
He was lying to her. Sarah had given this man more than thirty years of her life. She knew him better than he knew himself. And she always knew when he was lying.
“What did you do?” she asked coldly.
He sounded dismayed. “Darling, I—”
“Don’t you dare darling me! Tell me, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into this time, and what does it have to do with our daughter?”
“It’s…complicated.”
“Complicated?” She was practically roaring now, but was far too upset to lower her voice. Vivienne’s bedroom was on the floor above hers, and she prayed she didn’t wake her long-time friend. “Our daughter has disappeared, and you know something about it! So you better uncomplicate it and tell me the damn truth. What exactly did the caller say?”
“I told you, just that he has Lana, and that if we call the police, there will be repercussions.”
Sarah paled. “They’ll kill her?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” He hesitated. “We can’t contact the police yet, not until the man calls back.”
Sarah gave an unladylike curse. “So you want to sit around and wait?”
“I’m going to get her back, Sarah.”
The confidence ringing in his tone made her want to hit something. “Sure you will,” she spat out. “You constantly bring all these problems on our family, promise to take care of them and, in the end, you only cause a greater rift between us. Cole can barely look at you! Chase refuses to have any contact with us, depriving me of my only grandchildren! And now Lana is gone.”
Sarah fought for breath. She was suddenly seeing stars, the turmoil of the past few weeks finally beginning to take its toll on her. Her husband had cheated on her, after she’d given him years and years of devotion, and now, because of some foolhardy decision he’d made, their only daughter was missing.
“You had better get her back,” she warned, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold the phone steady anymore. “Do you hear me, Hank Kelley? You’ve done a lot of awful things in your lifetime. You’ve hurt me more than I can ever say. But I swear to you, Hank, if anything happens to our baby girl, I will never forgive you for this. Never.”
Chapter 5