Ryan took in the old cardboard filing boxes piled one on top of the other all around and groaned. "Well, might as well get started," he muttered and started walking toward the back of the room.

"Ryan, wait."

He turned to see Zoe lingering near the door. "What is it?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sorry, maybe? I know I said it before, but I am. I'm sorry that my hunch was right. I'm sorry that your uncle was here looking for something that involved your sister and didn't tell you about it."

"Maybe he had his reasons." He could only hope.

She nodded, obviously not wanting to pick a fight on this subject. "What month and year did Faith run away?" she asked instead.

"March 1988."

"At least that's a start. Now we just have to pray these boxes are in some sort of chronological order." She started looking at one end, then walked to another section, then another.

He wanted to help her. But now he had something to say first. "Zoe?"

She peeked her head up above one of the boxes. "Yeah?"

He met her gaze. "Thanks for not saying I told you so."

She grinned and got back to work.

It felt like ages before they'd narrowed things down enough to start digging through a select group of filing cartons. Even so, it took hours to sort through the individual boxes and papers.

The man hadn't been kidding about the mess. Zoe's eyes were tearing and her nose was running from all the rising dust that flew around each time they touched something that hadn't been disturbed in years.

"Oh my God! I found something," Ryan suddenly said, clearly stunned.

Zoe left her box and scrambled over to where he sat holding an old, yellowed paper. "What is it?"

"The card Faith filled out when she rented the box. It's dated March 15, 1988."

"Let me see." His hands shook and she eased the paper out of his grasp. She scanned the faded page and faint handwriting. There were the basic questions, but the answers didn't mean anything to Zoe. "This isn't your parents' current address."

"You're right. It belongs to a good friend of Faith's. Patty Wheaton was one of Faith's best friends. She was a couple of years older than Faith. Of course my parents disapproved of their friendship because Patty was a little fast, wore too much makeup and liked to have fun more than she liked to study."

"Hmm." Zoe narrowed her gaze. "I'm sure you followed up with Patty when you were looking for Faith."

"She was one of the few people my parents checked with right after Faith went missing. Patty said she hadn't heard from her. The P.I. I hired talked with her again, but she insisted Faith hadn't been in contact with her since she'd run away."

Zoe sighed, hearing the defeat in his voice.

He glanced at the card again. "This isn't my parents' phone number either."

"It's probably Patty's. Is it possible she still lives in the same place?" Zoe asked.

Ryan shook his head. "Doubtful. But her mother would know where she is and her parents are still local."

"It's worth a shot. We can talk to her again. See if anything from the locker ended up with her."

"Who'd keep old stuff from a friend who died years ago?" The edge in his tone spoke of his frustration.

Zoe slapped her hand on his knee. "I won't let you sound defeated before we know anything for sure." She rose and stood over him, then sat straddling him with her thighs. She felt his body heat penetrating between her legs and liquid desire pulsing through her. But her own feelings weren't what counted now.

Ryan's emotions were in turmoil, his past and present coming together in a painful way, and she wanted to be there for him as he worked his way through it. For a woman who'd always been independent, floating through life in a vacuum that only included her family, this sudden, deep need to care for another person took her off guard. Yet it was her feelings for Ryan that guided her every move right now.

She leaned forward and briefly touched her lips to his, lingering long enough to taste him and let the sensation of caring for him overwhelm her. Only then did she sit back on her heels. "We'll follow this trail as far as we can, okay?"

A smile tugged at his mouth. "We?"

"Have I abandoned you yet?" She immediately realized the depth of her question and didn't want him to press her any further. So she held out her hand and pulled him to his feet. "At the very least, we're one step ahead of your uncle, so we can get on this first thing in the morning."

He nodded. "I'd just like some answers." His gaze never left hers- as if he were telling her he knew something deep existed between them and he wanted her to acknowledge it too.

She feared she couldn't put off facing that issue much longer.

Chapter Twelve

DIRTY AND TIRED, Zoe wanted nothing more than to pick up Sam and head back to Ryan's. She intended to get a good night's sleep before she had to tackle the next part of their search. She certainly didn't need to arrive at the Baldwins' house to find Sam had gotten herself into trouble while they'd been gone. But she had.

"Accidents happen," Vivian said to Ryan and Zoe. "But when the plumber comes for a service call and finds a scrunchie clogging the toilet, then we're talking about a deliberate stuffing." Vivian shook her head, her exasperation obvious. "By the way, what is a scrunchie, anyway?"

Zoe bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "It's a ponytail holder. Only bigger."

"Well the water overflowed and created quite a mess." Vivian's posture and tone showed the weariness she must be feeling after a few hours with her granddaughter.

"Where's Sam now?" Ryan asked.

"Upstairs in your old room thinking about what she did and why she did it," Vivian said.

Zoe shot Ryan a glance.

"You punished her?" he asked, surprised.

"What else should I have done? She showed no thought to basic etiquette when visiting someone else's home." His mother stiffened her shoulders defensively.

"Did you explain that to her?" Zoe asked.

"Of course."

Ryan stepped forward. "And did you yell, scream and threaten to throw her out and never let her come back as you did to Faith?"

Zoe sucked in a harsh breath, taken aback by his sharp tone and biting sarcasm. "Ryan…"

"No, that's all right." Vivian ran her hand down her bob, straightening her already perfect hair. "Believe it or not, I thought long and hard before asking you if I could take Samantha for the afternoon. I revisited many of my past mistakes."

"Say that again?" Ryan looked into his mother's eyes.

"I'm admitting I made mistakes, Ryan. It's not the time to get into this now, but I am trying harder with Faith's daughter. She's going to have to realize there are consequences to her actions, though." Vivian gestured to the circular stairs. "Shall we go talk to her?"

"In a minute," Zoe said, stepping forward, knowing she was intruding on Ryan's family, and not caring. Not when she needed answers to questions that would directly affect Sam.

"Yes?" Vivian turned her head to face her.

"Why?" Zoe asked.

The other woman wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Why what?"

"Why punish her? Why teach her that there are consequences? What point are you trying to make?" Zoe pushed the other woman to explain herself, knowing full well she had no right to do so.

Vivian paused in thought. If she was annoyed or put out by Zoe's question, she didn't show it. "Well I suppose I want to teach her the proper way to behave for one thing."

Zoe tried not to cringe or pass judgment; instead she waited.

"And I realize now that Faith never knew we loved her."

"If that bothers you, then why didn't you search harder when she ran away?" Ryan asked.

Real tears suddenly filled the older woman's brown eyes, which Zoe now realized resembled Ryan's. "We had a pattern in our home. All our fights would focus on how Faith's wild rebellion reflected on the family. We'd yell and scream as you pointed out. She'd storm off to her room and the same type of thing would happen again the next day. It became a cycle we couldn't seem to break." She dabbed at the inside corner of her eye, attempting to stem her tears.

"Did you punish Faith?" Zoe asked softly.

"We tried, but no matter what we did, she never listened. Mostly because the screaming was such a large part of our lives, nothing had any impact. So when she ran away, after we checked all the obvious places, we thought, let her get it out of her system and then she'll come home."

Ryan stiffened his shoulders. "But she never did."

Vivian shook her head. "At the time we thought she made her choice, but I see now how wrong we were. We were the parents and she was the child. We should have kept trying."

Zoe swallowed hard, suddenly feeling the woman's pain.

"And all this brings us back to Samantha," Vivian continued. "When Ryan brought up the idea of bringing Faith's child here, I was completely against it since I feared the past would repeat itself. I knew when I looked at Samantha, I'd see my failures as a mother. And I did. I still do."

"Mom- " Ryan stepped forward, but his mother waved him away.

Though Zoe hurt for him, she sensed this moment was a turning point for them both. As the instigator of the conversation, but outsider to their family, Zoe could do no more than watch it play out, and in doing so she realized she was watching her family's role in Sam's life coming to an end. The thought brought a piercing ache to her own heart.

Vivian stared, focusing her thoughts. "I need to say this and I need to do it without your sympathy and without my falling apart."

Ryan nodded in obvious understanding.