Every forty seconds, a child goes missing in the United States.
By the time the sentence has been said aloud, it has already happened twice.
Eighty seconds ago, Bailey Ramirez was the person who went missing.
Looking back, I should have seen it co...
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Friday, October 28, 2016 Suspect 02: Maia
They were going to lie to her.
It wasn't like they hadn't done it before, but Bailey hated the fact that every time they saw Aleigha these days, a lie was coming out of their mouths. The twins walked over and greeted their sister as Christee smiled and pulled Bailey to the corner of the room. He knew what that pull was about. It was the "you're in trouble" pull.
"What is she doing here? I thought she wasn't coming after what happened between y'all."
"You didn't have to bring that up."
She rolled her eyes. "Do you know how upset she's going to be when she figures out what just happened?"
"We're not telling her," Bailey folded his arms. "Luna doesn't want her to know."
"And what we're just supposed to keep this gigantic secret?" Christee smiled and shook her head as people walked around them. "Bailey, you know that this is wrong."
"What am I supposed to do? Tell her that we just saw her missing sister with Kasey before he went to hook up with her other sister?" Bailey dropped his arms and grabbed Christee by her shoulders. "We're lucky she's even at this party."
"Since when did we all start hiding things from each other?" Christee shook away from Bailey's hold.
"The minute Liberty went missing." Bailey scoffed.
The horrid screeching sound from the television began again forcing them to all face the screen. Bailey felt his teeth grinding together as he fought to protect his ears from the noise. On the opposite side of the room, he watched as Aleigha put her hands up to her ears.
He could see her jaws clenching as she struggled to cover her hearing aid in her left ear. Over the years, due to all the loud music that she listened to, Aleigha had torn her eardrum and was forced to get a hearing aid. It was one of the few things that separated Aleigha from Liberty. And like most differences the twins had, Bailey was the only one that knew about it.
Deuce of Diamonds. Sin or secret?
Christee placed her hand on Bailey's shoulder. "Are we really about to play this game?"
"Oh, come on," Bailey laughed. "Aren't you the least bit curious to know what everyone in this room is hiding?"
"Unless it's grad school results, I don't think I care."
"It's Halloween Christee. If there's any way of really knowing what happened to Liberty, tonight is that night."
"You think someone in here is dumb enough to reveal that they know something?" Christee raised an eyebrow.
"I think the right amount of alcohol will make anyone do anything."
Eyes swept across the room as they watched to see whose card it was.
