The Lie - Kathryn Croft - English

My son said he walked his girlfriend home. But now she is missing…
Our new home was meant to be a chance for us to start again, to make new friends and forget the past. And as I look around the barbeque we’ve thrown for our neighbours, I dare to dream that things will be all right. I watch my husband joking as he flips burgers and my daughter turning cartwheels on our sun-bleached lawn. And then my gaze falls on my son Jacob, and his new girlfriend Rose, in her light blue jeans and her green crop top. There is a worried expression clouding her beautiful eyes…
The next day I get a call from Rose’s mother that chills me to the bone. Rose never returned after our party.
I wake my still-sleeping son, who walked Rose home the night before, and beg him for answers. Jacob promises he saw Rose to her front door, and I know he would never lie.
But when the police find Rose’s house keys hidden in our garden and a witness claims to have seen them arguing in the street, everyone insists I can’t believe what Jacob is telling me.