The highway was a blur of headlights slicing through the relentless downpour. Without warning, the sky had turned an ominous shade of black, and rain hammered down in sheets, reducing visibility to almost nothing. The windshield wipers flailed furiously, but they couldn't keep up.
Bill's knuckles whitened around the steering wheel, his grip so tight it almost hurt. Through the car's speakers, the melancholic strains of "Moonlight Sonata" filled the cabin—his mother's favorite piece. The brooding notes intertwined with the distant rumble of thunder, dragging him back to the night before she vanished.
That night, she had brought him a glass of milk, her voice gentle as she urged him to drink up and go to bed early. She had promised they would go horseback riding the next morning.
His phon
