Chapter 104

Slade's POV.

I had spent the better part of a week chasing shadows, feeling the subtle give of the pavement beneath my feet every time I pressed for a straight answer.

The truth, when it finally broke through the layers of institutional denial, wasn't a sudden, shattering revelation, but a grinding annoyance. It was the confirmation of my worst suspicion, articulated in a rushed whisper from a trembling paralegal: they were really hiding the fact that Jayden had disappeared ...