I’ve lost her.
My little sister is really gone.
I drop to my knees in the middle of the road, staring after the car as it disappears around the bend, feeling absolutely broken as it drives away with my little sister.
Tears stream down my face and I scream out for her until I physically cannot scream anymore, never more desperate for anything in my life.
My knees are grazed by the hard road but I can’t find the strength to move, not until hands are gripping my upper arms and pulling me up from the ground. I glance around and realize my home is surrounded by cops and the two men standing on either side of me, dragging me to my feet are officers.
I rip my arm free from one of the men and turn into the other, grabbing the front of his shirt and pleading with everything I have as pain tears through my hip. “Please,” I cry. “You have to find her. Please. I’ll do anything, just find my little sister.”
“Alright, ma’am,” the cop standing before me says as he tries to pry my fingers free of his uniform. He looks back over his shoulder and yells out. “We need a paramedic over here.” The cop looks back to me as though I’m some terrified animal, scared of being caught. “You need to calm down, you’ve been hurt. What’s your name?”
“That’s not important,” I rush out, yanking on his shirt, not understanding why he hasn’t taken off after Kelly. “They’re getting away. They took her. You need to do something. You need to go.”
The cop leans in a little closer, focusing on my face. “Who took her? What’s going on here? We got a call to come and check out a disturbance.”
“My sister was taken,” I cry. “She was abandoned here seven months ago by her mother who was fleeing court ordered drug rehabilitation. Please, you have to do something. She’s only five years old,” the cop’s eyes widen in horror but I continue on. “Her mom showed up here with some guy, claiming she was clean and that she was taking her kid back. I tried to tell them no and said that they had to leave, but they kicked down the door and barged their way in. They took her right from her bed while she was screaming. She was so scared, she…she was crying out for me and I couldn’t get her in time. Please. Please, you have to get her back. They only just left a few minutes ago. Please, I’ll do anything.”
“Alright,” he tells me in a voice that’s way too calm before indicating for a few of his guys to join us. “We’re going to do what we can to locate your little sister. Why don’t you sit down with Officer Dunham? We’re going to need as much information on your sister and her mother as possible.”
“No,” I say. “You’re wasting time. I need to get out there and start searching. Kelly is an awful parent. She neglected her. Didn’t feed her, didn’t take her to school or show her any kind of love. Ari can’t go back to that life. I need to find her.”
He shakes his head. “It’s best for you to stay here in case she shows up or if her mother calls looking for some kind of ransom.”
“Don’t you get it? Kelly doesn’t want anything. She just wanted Aria and now she’s got her. She’s not after a ransom because she knows we don’t have anything she needs. We don’t have money or anything valuable to offer her. She’s got what she wants and now she’ll take off somewhere she knows we won’t find her.”
An officer arrives at the guy’s side and he instantly turns to him. “Put a BOLO out. I want an immediate patrol of the area with every available officer searching.”
“What are we looking for, Chief?”
The guy he called ‘Chief’ turns back to me. “Alright, I know your head is probably hurting and all you want to do is head out to join the search, but I’m going to need you to hang back and tell us everything you know. You need to help us so we can help you.”
I nod my head eagerly before he nods to the other cop who I’d ripped my arm away from. “Good, now I need you to remember what your sister was wearing, the color and make of the car if you can remember them, and anything you know about the people who took her, alright?”
The other officer cuts in. “A recent photo would also be a great help.”
“Um…ok,” I say as I try to piece everything together in my mind. I think back to our night. I’d come home fretting about finding out Anton Rivers was my biological father and I was panicking about telling dad. To be honest, I didn’t even give Aria that much attention.