Chapter 2

Kayden Miller''s POV

The girl looks like she''s been hit by a truck.

I''m sitting in the hospital waiting room next to Mom and Dad, staring at the doors where they took her twenty minutes ago. The doctors wouldn''t let us go back with her. Said family only.

But she doesn''t have family. Not real family anyway. Not if someone did that to her face.

"The police want to talk to us," Dad says, hanging up his phone.

Mom looks up from wringing her hands. "What did you tell them?"

"The truth. That we found her in the alley behind the restaurant. That she looked like she''d been beaten."

I can''t stop thinking about how small she looked when Dad carried her to our car. Like a broken bird. And those eyes. So scared when she looked at us.

"They''re going to want to contact her parents," Mom says quietly.

"No." The word comes out harder than I meant it to. "You saw what someone did to her. We can''t send her back to that."

Dad puts his hand on my shoulder. "It might not be her parents, son."

"Then who? She''s maybe sixteen. Seventeen at most. Someone''s been hurting her for a long time. You could see it."

The bruises on her face were fresh but there were older marks too. Faded yellow ones around her neck. Scars on her arms.

A doctor comes through the doors. She looks tired and grim.

"Are you the family that brought in the Jane Doe?"

"We found her," Mom says, standing up. "Is she okay?"

The doctor glances around the waiting room. Other families are sitting nearby, trying not to listen.

"She''s stable," she says carefully. "But she''s been through significant trauma. Recent and... not so recent."

"What does that mean?" I ask.

She looks at me like she''s trying to decide how much to tell us.

"It means someone''s been hurting her for a while. She''s malnourished. Dehydrated. Multiple injuries in various stages of healing."

Mom sinks back into her chair. "Oh God."

"Has she said anything? About who did this?" Dad asks.

"She hasn''t spoken at all since you brought her in. The trauma to her throat..." The doctor shakes her head. "She might not be able to speak for a while."

"Can we see her?"

"Are you family?"

"No, but—"

"I''m sorry. Family only until we can locate her next of kin."

I stand up. "What if her family is who did this to her?"

The doctor''s expression hardens. "That''s what we''re trying to determine. Social services will be involved. The police are already working on identifying her."

"She asked us not to send her back," Mom says suddenly. "When we found her. She begged us not to send her back."

The doctor nods grimly. "We''ll make sure she''s safe. That''s all I can tell you right now."

After she leaves, we sit there in silence for a long time.

"We should go home," Dad finally says. "Get some rest. We can check on her tomorrow."

I shake my head. "I''m staying."

"Kayden—"

"Someone needs to be here when she wakes up. Someone she recognizes."

Mom looks at Dad. They have one of those silent conversations that parents do.

"Okay," Dad says. "But just for tonight."

I settle back into the uncomfortable plastic chair and stare at those doors again.

I don''t even know her name. But something about the way she looked at us... like we were her last hope.

I''m not leaving her alone.