Céline grabbed her phone, picked up her bag, and ran outside. She ran through the forest as if the ground were chasing her. Her feet slipped over the mud, her breathing burned, tears carved her face without stopping. She shouted her sister's name: "Liliiaaaaaa!!" There was no reply. Only an echo repeating her name mockingly from the emptiness of the forest.
After an hour of searching, she returned to the hill, stood there, and raised her phone high. Finally, a signal appeared, and she called Eva.
Eva answered immediately, her voice gasping:
_"Céline! I saw your message! Where are you?"
Céline said quickly:
_"They kidnapped her, Liliia is missing. I found a name on the necklace: Ryan Marshall. Search for him immediately, everything about him."
She heard Eva typing quickly on the keyboard. Then her voice came:
_ "Wait... there's a name... Dr. Ryan Marshall, a psychiatrist who previously worked with support centers for children with special psychological conditions. He disappeared from the Ministry of Health records ten years ago."
Céline said in shock:
_"A psychiatrist? Who did he treat?"
Eva replied in a tense voice:
_ "I don't know. But there are reports of a professional relationship between him and the journalist... Mariam Fallon."
Céline hit her chest with her fist.
_"It's him... he's Liliia's real father."
Eva said:
_ "And maybe more than that."
Céline asked her:
_"Where did he work? Where does he live?"
She said:
_ "There's an old address... in a remote town called Bram Hill, two hours from your location. Will you go?"
Céline looked at the sprawling forest, the heavy air pressing on her chest. Then she said:
_ "Yes. I will go, no matter the danger that awaits me."
Céline set off for the nearest main road, took the first passing bus, then a taxi took her to the town of "Bram Hill." The town seemed frozen in time: small houses, dirt roads, two abandoned churches, and a group of strangers with silent faces.
She asked about "Ryan Marshall," but most people denied knowing him. Some were afraid to mention his name. One elderly woman said: "The one who played with children's minds? Don't mention him here. He disappeared. Or was killed. No one knows."
But a thin young man working in a secondhand bookstore heard her, approached her, and said quietly:
_ "You're looking for him, aren't you?"
The girl nodded immediately, hoping deep inside that this person had useful information. The man said to her:
_ "Follow me."
To be continued...