LEV
Iva lurched to her feet. “What do you mean?” she demanded into the phone, her voice cracking. “What do you mean, Akari was taken? Taken by who?”
A woman’s panicked, stuttering voice spilled through the speaker. “ I-I don’t know. I don’t—someone hit me. I was putting him to bed. I had just tucked him in and—and someone hit me. I woke up on the floor and he—he was gone.”
I stood there frozen, listening as her words tripped over each other, barely making sense. My mind raced, trying to catch up and assemble the pieces, and heat ignited in my chest, sharp and suffocating, as the pieces fell into place in a way that terrified me.
I stared at Iva, my breath lodged somewhere high in my throat. She has a child? The thought sliced me open. Then another one followed, worse, and crushing: S
