While I was on vacation with my cousins, my phone lit up with one message: “Get on a plane home. Don’t tell your parents you’re coming.” When I landed, an attorney and two investigators

early,” I said. “I wasn’t feeling great.”

She touched my forehead with the back of her hand, just like she had my whole life. “You’re not warm. Did something happen?”

“I just wanted to be home.”

Her eyes softened. “Oh, sweetheart.”

She hugged me.

I stood stiffly in her arms, trying to connect the woman holding me with the woman who may have taken me from continue reading …