MY HUSBAND’S BEST FRIEND OF THIRTY YEARS DROVE OUR SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER TO BALLET THREE TIMES A WEEK. THEN SHE WENT SILENT, HID HER DANCE SHOES, AND STOPPED SPEAKING TO ME. I DROVE TO THE STUDIO WITHOUT WARNING — AND MY DAUGHTER WASN’T THERE. “MRS. BENNETT,” HER INSTRUCTOR SAID, CLOSING THE DOOR, “YOUR DAUGHTER HASN’T TOLD YOU WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING, HAS SHE?” My husband’s best friend offered to drive our sixteen-year-old daughter to ballet three times a week. We’d trusted him for nearly thirty years. So when Audrey suddenly went quiet and stopped talking about dancing, I never imagined he could be part of it. Then one afternoon, I went to her studio without warning, looked through the classroom window — and Audrey wasn’t there. When I asked her instructor where my daughter was, the woman’s face changed. “Mrs. Bennett, your daughter hasn’t told you what’s been happening, has she?” And the worst story I’d ever told myself turned out to be entirely wrong.

Editor

Chapter 1: The Empty Barre Audrey had loved ballet since she was little. Our kitchen in Calder Heights was barely…