I Answered My Own Missing Poster

I Answered My Own Missing Poster

Juniper Marlow · Completed · 5.8k Words

373
Hot
373
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

The winter I was eight, I found my own face in a trash can.
It was on a missing-child flyer. The girl on it had been gone five years. She had a birthmark on the back of her neck.
So did I.
There was a reward. A number with a long row of zeros. I didn't want it.
I was cold. I hadn't eaten since yesterday.
I just wanted a mom.
So that night, with a stranger's coins, I called the number at the bottom.
A woman answered on the first ring and screamed a name at me like it was mine.
She got to say it three times.
Then a hand came out of the dark behind me and hung up the phone for me.

Chapter 1

The winter I was eight, I found my own face in a trash can.

It was on a missing-child flyer. The girl on it had been gone five years. She had a birthmark on the back of her neck.

So did I.

There was a reward. A number with a long row of zeros. I didn't want it.

I was cold. I hadn't eaten since yesterday.

I just wanted a mom.

So that night, with a stranger's coins, I called the number at the bottom.

A woman answered on the first ring and screamed a name at me like it was mine.

She got to say it three times.

Then a hand came out of the dark behind me and hung up the phone for me.


I ate on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Those were the nights Dot worked the register at the Red Bird truck stop. She threw out food that wasn't bad yet. Hot dogs. Bread. Once, half an apple pie.

She always used the bin by the notice board. The clean one.

I never touched the other bins. You get sick, nobody takes you to a doctor. I learned that the winter my fingers broke.

That Tuesday it was snowing. I walked the two miles from the salvage yard with plastic bags tied over my socks. Bertie locked my shoes up at night so I wouldn't run.

Run where. I was eight. I didn't know the name of one town except this one.

The hot dogs were there, still warm through the wrapper. I ate one in the dark and put two inside my coat.

Then I went back to the bin, because sometimes there was more.

There was paper. Somebody had cleared the old flyers off the notice board. A whole stack of them, shoved in the trash.

The one on top had a kid's face on it.

MISSING. Big red letters. I couldn't read the rest. I never went to school. But I knew that word.

The photo was a little girl, three years old maybe. Fat cheeks. Laughing at somebody behind the camera.

Next to the photo was a drawing. The same girl, but older. What she might look like now.

It looked like me.

Not a little like me. Like somebody had drawn my face.

Under the pictures were things I understood without reading.

A small drawing of a mark, shaped like a thumbprint, with an arrow pointing to the back of the girl's neck.

I have that mark. Bertie called it a dirt spot. She scrubbed at it hard enough to break the skin.

It never washed off.

A number with a dollar sign and a long row of zeros.

And at the bottom, a phone number.

I took the flyer to the front window. Dot looked at it. Then at me. Then at it again.

She came out from behind the counter and put coins in my hand, warm from the register drawer.

"Phone's outside. Left of the ice machine. Go on."

She didn't ask me anything.

Maybe she knew I couldn't answer.

I hadn't made a word in two years. Not since the cellar. I open my mouth and nothing is there.

The phone was freezing against my ear. I fed the coins in with my crooked fingers and matched the numbers on the flyer to the buttons, one at a time. I checked every one twice.

It rang once.

Somebody picked up before the second ring. Fast. Like she slept next to that phone.

"Hello?" A woman. Her voice cracked in the middle of the one word. "Hello? Who is this?"

I opened my mouth.

Nothing.

"Please. Please, is somebody there?"

My throat worked and worked. My eyes were burning.

So I did the only thing my throat still knew how to do.

I hummed.

The little tune with no words. I don't know where it came from. I hum it at night in the blue car, quiet, where nobody can hear.

It's the only sound I have left.

Five notes.

The woman went dead silent.

Then she made a sound I had never heard a grown-up make. Something breaking inside a person, live, right into my ear.

"Junie." Her voice came apart. "Oh God. Junie. Baby, where are you? Make any sound. Knock on something. Anything. Mommy's coming, do you hear me? Mommy is coming, I just need—"

A hand closed on the back of my neck.

"Look at this," Judd said. "The rat knows how to use a phone."

He ripped me off the curb. I twisted around and bit his hand as hard as I had teeth.

He didn't yell. He laughed.

He peeled me off his arm and held me up by the collar, my feet off the ground. Then he picked up the swinging receiver with his other hand.

The woman's voice was still pouring out of it. Junie. Junie, baby, talk to me. Junie—

Judd listened for a second.

He smiled.

"Wrong number," he said, and hung up.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

To protect what’s mine

To protect what’s mine

530.4k Views · Completed · Winter Rowe
Amalie is more special than she ever thought possible. Why would the twenty-two-year-old think any different after she has been told she’s nothing for her whole life by her family? Adoptive mother of a three-year-old, Ama has been locked up by her family for the past seven years. But everything changes when her old friends, the Alpha twins, Markus and Calyx, take over the Moonstone pack. Finding out that the twins are her mates, she is a white wolf, and has a connection to the Moon Goddess, is just icing on the cake of her life is a huge mess. Ama just wants a normal life with her mates and protecting her pup, but life rarely gives us what we want. She is thrust into world that she no longer remembers and has forgotten her. Amalie is charged with protecting those closest to her. But she has her own past to overcome as she heals and attempts to move forward. Will she come out alive or lose herself along the way? After all, someone has to be pulling the strings, why not pull her along for the ride?
The Spy Who Left

The Spy Who Left

1.3k Views · Completed · Orion Vale
"She's naive. A pretty little socialite who got lucky marrying above her station."
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Ruined : You will always be mine.

Ruined : You will always be mine.

45.9k Views · Completed · Nia Kas
I could feel him standing in front of me. He grabbed my legs and in one single move thrusted into me.
“Fuckkk”, I couldn’t help but scream.
“You need to learn to be obedient” he said as he kept thrusting into me. When I felt his hands on my clit my body shook.
“Asher please, it’s too much”.
“No. if I really wanted to punish you, I would give you all of me”, he said against my ears and my entire body froze. Suddenly he moved and I was standing again. This man was insane.
I felt him behind me. “Ten Lashes for your disobedience”, he said
“Asher please”,
“No”. His voice was cold and void of any emotion.

Asher was what I wanted , what I truly craved until it was too late. An orphan should never fall in love with someone out of their reach. I thought loving him was the right thing to do until he revealed his true identity and Ruined me. I was ruined for everyone one else . I could still feel his touch, it was as if it was etched into my skin. I tired to avoid him but fate wouldn't let it happen.
The Sterling's were the most powerful in Havenwood and Dorian Sterling was off limits.

As an orphan finding out you still have people looking for you is hard to take but when it turns out to be people of wealth and standing I took the other road and ran, but running led me right back to the place I was avoiding and the person I was avoiding.
Asher and Dorling Sterling one and the same. When his first love shows up and along with everyone that has set out to ruin me, I prayed that he could protect me.
Accardi

Accardi

987.3k Views · Completed · Allison Franklin
“I thought we discussed this earlier, Weakness? I warned you. His death is on your hands.”
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.


Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
Alpha VS Omega' Twin VS Twin (A Dark Werewolf Romance)

Alpha VS Omega' Twin VS Twin (A Dark Werewolf Romance)

1.1k Views · Ongoing · June Calva
Callum Brennan was born to lead London's most powerful werewolf pack. Then his twin brother framed him for murder.
Stripped of everything, Callum is thrown into the Rookeries, where packless wolves go to die. But he survives. He builds a pack from the broken and the damned. He falls in love with Valentina, a dhampir hunted by the same vampire Parliament that destroyed his life.
In a city ruled by immortal aristocrats and controlled by ancient dragons, Callum learns the hardest truth: individual virtue cannot defeat systemic evil. But small victories matter. And some fights are worth losing everything
Tempted By The Enemy

Tempted By The Enemy

3.9k Views · Completed · rituparna darolia
Twenty-two-year-old Alyssa Van Every is in a dilemma. Her close friend, Sienna, is marrying billionaire, Lucas Donnelly who, along with his brothers, happens to be her older brother, Alex's sworn enemy.
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

1.5m Views · Ongoing · Louisa
Dear readers, this novel is coming to an end soon. I highly recommend another fantastic story of the same genre:


I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.

On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...

Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.

George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.

His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"

Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.

When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.

"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"

George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"

"I'm afraid that's impossible."

Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
A pack of their own

A pack of their own

2m Views · Completed · dragonsbain22
Being the middle Child ignored and neglected, rejected by family and injured, She receives her wolf early and realizes she is a new type of hybrid but doesn't know how to control her power, she leaves her pack with her best friend and grandmother to go to her grandfather's clan to learn what she is and how to handle her power and then with her fated mate, her best friend and her fated mate little brother and grandmother start their own pack.
From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

2.7k Views · Completed · Ellis Carter
"Ten years of atonement, and you flee?"

His fangs glinted as he gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. Dragon scales shimmered along his neck, breath scorching my skin.

"Your Majesty... I beg—" He shoved me onto the bed. Silk tore with a sharp rip, cold air rushing over my exposed body.

"Scared?" He smirked, palm sliding down my waist, fingers tracing slow, burning circles. "Yet you shiver... not from cold."

I lunged for the candlestick, but he caught my wrist, pinning it overhead. His knee forced my legs apart.

"When your father gave you to me," his lips brushed my ear, voice a dark rumble, "you were already mine."

On the eve of freedom after ten years of servitude, Lina Valeria stood one night away from reuniting with her betrothed. But Dragon King Augustus condemned her to the Abyss Mines on false charges—a trap forged from obsessive desire.

Augustus Ashenwing, Supreme Sovereign of Skyhold Citadel, is ruthless and feared by all races. His obsession stems from ancient grudges and dragonkind's most dangerous instinct: possessive desire. He demands her submission, binding her to his throne as his consort.

From prisoner to queen, Lina battles him through court intrigue and twisted passion—fighting for her mother, her freedom, her dignity.

Yet this cold-blooded tyrant reserves all tenderness for her alone. He indulges her temper, bends his pride, compromises without limit—anything to see her smile. Gradually, her heart wavers. But loving him means betraying Kain, who waited eleven years. Torn between duty and desire, she drowns in agonizing guilt.

Love and hatred intertwined—a forbidden dragon romance in a realm of oppression.
Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

5.2k Views · Completed · ngocvynguyen985
Valerie accidentally forms a bond with Maxwell, a light demon, and begins seeing the dangerous supernatural world hidden around her. As the two constantly bicker yet protect each other, Valerie gradually discovers her own light-based powers and confronts many dark forces, including a serial kidnapper, the dark demon Zane, and other malevolent entities. Maxwell, haunted by the death of his former lover Juliana, repeatedly tries to distance himself from Valerie to keep her safe, causing both of them pain. Yet every time Valerie is in danger, Maxwell returns to save her, and their feelings grow deeper. The climax comes when they face Mason, a fire demon who hunts human–demon couples; Valerie risks her life in battle while Maxwell nearly collapses from exhaustion. In the end, Mason is destroyed, the threats fade away, and Valerie and Maxwell can finally stay together in peace.
The Contract Wife: Marriage Of Malice

The Contract Wife: Marriage Of Malice

79.2k Views · Completed · Cherie Frost
"Tell me to stop, and I will," he murmured against my ear. "But if you don't..."
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
I didn't tell him to stop.
Instead, my fingers curled into his shirt, clutching the fabric as though it was my only anchor. Something in him snapped—something he had been holding back for too long. His mouth found mine in a kiss that wasn't tender, but hungry, desperate.
I gasped into him, his hand sliding up to cup my jaw, holding me as if afraid I might vanish.
"You drive me insane," he breathed against my mouth, his lips trailing to my throat. "I can't lose you, Ella. Not you."
My head fell back, a soft sound escaping me as his fingers memorized my waist. My anger melted beneath his desperation.
"James..." I whispered, more plea than protest.
His hand caught mine, fingers threading together tightly. "I'll bring him back. I swear it. Just... don't turn away from me. Please."
The word please—low, ragged, almost broken—undid me more than anything else could have.


Ella never imagined she would marry the man she had secretly loved for years in such a way.
When her brother Theo faced twenty-five years in prison for massive embezzlement, the ruthless business tycoon James Lancaster offered her a deal: marry him in exchange for her brother's freedom.
This wasn't a fairy tale proposal, but a carefully orchestrated revenge. Because in James's heart, Ella was the culprit who had killed his sister Cecilia. He wanted her to pay the price—to atone with a lifetime of suffering.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.8m Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.