The elevator doors were almost closed when I heard her scream.
“Dad!”
I knew that voice.
Lily.
I ran toward the elevator.
Through the narrowing gap between the doors, I saw Richard standing inside.
And Lily was trying desperately to get away from him.
She lunged toward the hallway.
Richard grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
“Stay here!”
“Let me go!”
Then Lily saw me.
Her eyes went wide.
“DAD!”
I shoved my hand between the elevator doors just before they closed.
The sensors caught it.
The doors slid open again.
“Release her.”
Richard stared at me.
His grip tightened around Lily’s arm.
“She’s coming with me.”
“No. She isn’t.”
Lily tried to move toward me.
Richard pulled her behind him.
That was the moment I stopped asking.
I stepped into the elevator.
“Let her go. Now.”
Richard laughed.
Then he swung.
He punched first.
A second later, I drove him backward into the hallway wall.
The impact knocked the breath out of him.
His hand released Lily.
She ran straight into my arms.
“Dad!”
I wrapped both arms around her.
She was trembling.
“Don’t let him take me.”
“Never.”
Richard pushed himself away from the wall.
I stepped between him and Lily.
“Stay away from her.”
For once, he listened.
He didn’t argue.
He didn’t threaten me.
He just stared.
I thought it was over.
I was wrong.
Lily tugged at my sleeve.
“Dad…”
I looked down.
“What?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Mom is still in his room.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“What do you mean?”
Lily looked toward Richard.
He suddenly seemed nervous.
“Lily,” I said carefully, “where is Mom?”
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t let me see her.”
Richard started backing away.
I looked at him.
“Which room?”
He said nothing.
“Richard.”
Still nothing.
But sometimes people answer without speaking.
His eyes moved.
Just for a second.
Past my shoulder.
Toward the row of hotel doors behind me.
I followed his gaze.
Room 413.
Then—
417.
I looked back at Richard.
His face changed.
He knew I had seen it.
“Lily, stay behind me.”
I started toward Room 417.
Richard moved at the same time.
But not toward the room.
He ran.
“Richard!”
He sprinted down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.
I could have chased him.
For half a second, I almost did.
Then I remembered what Lily had said.
Mom is still in his room.
I turned back.
Lily was staring at Room 417.
“Dad…”
“What?”
“I heard Mom crying in there.”
I walked to the door.
“Mom?”
No answer.
I knocked harder.
“Can you hear me?”
Silence.
Then Lily pointed toward the floor.
A hotel key card was lying near the wall.
Richard must have dropped it during the fight.
I picked it up.
Lily grabbed my arm.
“What if he locked her in there?”
I slid the card into the reader.
Red light.
Again.
Red.
“Dad…”
Then I noticed something scratched into the plastic.
417.
I tried once more.
This time—
Green.
The lock clicked.
I pushed the door open.
The room was dark.
The curtains were closed.
A lamp had been knocked onto the floor.
There was a suitcase beside the bed.
Mom’s suitcase.
“Mom?”
Nothing.
Lily stayed close behind me.
Then I heard it.
A faint sound.
Three knocks.
Not from the hallway.
From inside the room.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Lily froze.
“That’s her.”
I followed the sound toward the bathroom.
The door wouldn’t open.
Something had been pushed against it from the outside.
I moved the chair blocking the handle and pulled the door open.
“Mom?”
Lily rushed forward.
But the bathroom was empty.
The knocking came again.
This time I realized it wasn’t coming from the bathroom.
It was coming from the closet.
I crossed the room and pulled the closet door open.
And stopped.
Mom wasn’t there.
Her coat was.
Her purse was.
Her phone was lying on the floor.
The screen was shattered.
Beside it was another hotel key card.
Lily picked it up.
“Dad…”
Printed across the card sleeve were two numbers.
417 — connecting room: 419.
Then something hit the wall on the other side.
Once.
Twice.
And a woman’s voice whispered through it.
“Lily?”
My daughter’s face went white.
“Mom.”
I ran toward the connecting door.
And from somewhere down the hallway, I heard Richard shouting.
“DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!”
