Husband went to bed at night (husband and wife slept in separate bedrooms during wife’s menstrual cycle?—need to learn more about this). He woke to wife missing. Husband usually went to bed late, around one a.m., and woke by six a.m. daily, so wife escaped during small window of time. There was no sign of foul play. No forced entry.
Carson sat on his hands, tucking them underneath his legs to avoid punching a hole straight through the wall. If Sienna was actually Lilach Finder, then she had a husband she’d neglected to tell him about.
THIS IS ALL NEWS. Woman ran from apartment shared with husband, not family home? More lies.
In-laws’ opinion and status extremely important to these people; son-in-law very involved with offering theories now that he’s alerted to investigation.
Family tells son-in-law, they “set out to find daughter to surprise him, please him when they brought her back.”
Bringing her back would restore the relations between his family and their own. FOR
REAL—what about their daughter? SOMETHING IS OFF. Don’t they want to find her?
He stood up and stretched his legs, looking for somewhere to escape the ugliness glaring in front of him, and realized there was absolutely nowhere. He had to finish.
“Small personal crisis,” they told neighbors, and “wanted to commit herself to something noble.”
When pushed, family feigned ignorance on why she left. Continued to claim personal identity crisis.
Feel certain she’s living in some tight-knit community out west, but not urban. That was where she would feel comfortable.
Their friends have been saving for five years to hire someone.
Almost a sense of desperation in finding her, but not because they miss her? In-laws, in-laws, in-laws—all they talk about.
Missing piece to the puzzle: Did woman have money? [no]
Did woman hold key to money, secrets? [Maybe with in-laws?]
Carson hung his head. He had obviously failed this young woman, wherever she was. That was all the information he had. All of it.
He ran a hand through his hair, contemplating the facts he knew and compared them to everything he learned today.
Lilach Finder had green eyes and brown hair. Sienna was completely bare down there, so no knowing her true hair color. And her eyes were blue. Right?
No way they’re the same person.
Sienna had showed up out of nowhere in Vegas about seven years ago and joined a mostly all-cash business. The woman he was looking for being missing the same amount of time was an unusual coincidence, that was all.
He had one picture he’d been given of Lilach. She was teaching a lesson to a group of children, and was pictured lighting some religious-type candles. Her hands were cupped loosely around her face, leaving a slight shadow to fall on her features. There was a clear beauty to her, but her hair was definitely brown and her nose wasn’t perfect like the woman he had come to care too much about.
The woman performing a blessing and praying to a god he didn’t even believe in wasn’t Sienna. How could it be? Sienna provoked the most impure thoughts in men and women. She wasn’t the type to cook dinner, set the table, and observe an age-old custom every week while hosting neighborhood children.
He paced the carpet in the hotel room, walking back and forth, leaving a distinct trail of his footprints crossing the room.
Yet, there was something to this strange woman in the picture. An uncanny and untainted innocence, the same quality he immediately was attracted to in Sienna. Even with a few slight imperfections, there was an inexplicable beauty to the woman guarding her face with her hands. As if she had a spark waiting to be released, untapped purity and goodness.
Carson thought back to Sienna’s innocence, which drew him further to her, how it was a bit strange for the industry she worked in, but there could be other reasons. Like her saying she was a military brat. Her family might not have laid down roots long enough for her to form a relationship as a younger woman, although that didn’t fit the path she had chosen now. Still a possibility, though.
Typically, women in the adult entertainment industry came from a hard life and looked for a way to make good money. Lots of it. Many of them had sordid stories. Stripping made them a lot of cash, so the money went a long way for a woman who never finished school, a commonality among strippers.
He knew he was generalizing in his head, but he was trying to figure out Sienna. He was desperate to prove she wasn’t Lilach, yet a military background wasn’t standard issue for adults-only nightclub work.
There definitely was something else at play, but Sienna couldn’t have run from a highly religious sect to be a stripper only out of fear of God?