"Who wants fries? Come here! Who wants fried chicken drumsticks? Over here!"

A swarm of children bounced around her, hands grabbing, voices clamoring.

While the three Mason sisters were distracted, I slipped the phone from the table into my pocket and positioned myself in the doorway, scanning the path to the village entrance.

Before Maya left, I'd counted.

Including her, there were ten children.

Now, only nine crowded around my mother-in-law.

"Where's Maya? Why didn't she come back?"

Just like in my previous life, my daughter was nowhere.

I questioned the children one by one.

I gripped Tommy's shoulders—hard. The boy, mouth still stuffed with fries, burst into loud sobs.

"Mommy, Mommy, I'm scared..."

Daisy yanked him away from me, glaring.

"Zoey, what's wrong with you? Maya wanted to keep playing and didn't come back on her own—why are you scaring my son?"

She pulled Tommy into her arms, cooing softly to comfort him.

I was frantic, pacing in circles like an ant on a hot pan.

"Austin, our daughter is missing. Come help me look for her."

He dragged himself off the couch, languid and unhurried. "Zoey, you're overthinking this. She's probably just having fun. She'll be back any minute."

My mother-in-law chimed in with some embarrassing story about Austin falling asleep in a grass nest as a kid.

"Back then, Austin played until he was exhausted and napped in a haystack the whole afternoon. We searched everywhere, and he still wandered home on his own eventually."

I knew exactly what they were doing. Every word, every distraction—all of it was to stall for time.

The village cellar had been dug deep.

My daughter and I both suffocated to death in our previous life.

My phone buzzed twice.

Maya is with me. I found that person.

The weight crushing my chest finally lifted. I kept my voice flat. "You were right. She probably just wandered off to play."

Half an hour later, my mother-in-law muttered, "Why isn't Maya back yet? Austin, go find her. Dinner's almost ready."

Austin yanked me up from the couch where I'd been calmly watching TV.

"Our daughter is still missing and you're sitting here watching TV?"

I shot him a look of pure contempt. "Weren't you the one who said kids just want to play? That she'd be back any minute?"

He stared at me, caught off guard, mouth opening—

I cut him off. "What? Is listening to you suddenly wrong too?"