The Girl Who Was Taken

Chapter 1 occurs 12 months after Megan’s escape and is narrated from the third-person perspective of a new character: Livia Cutty. Livia is Nicole’s sister, and she is in a forensic pathology fellowship program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, North Carolina. As Livia reflects on her experience in medical school, she identifies her motivation for studying forensics: Her sister’s body has never been found. Livia fervently believes that one day, she will find Nicole, and she wants to be the pathologist who seeks justice for her.

This goal has driven Livia to graduate with honors from medical school and enter the competitive fellowship program. Livia acknowledges that although many of her classmates also have good grades and positive recommendations, her passion for finding her sister’s killer sets her apart. She did not answer her phone the night Nicole called her, and she is haunted by guilt.

Livia conducts autopsies and prepares to present her findings before a panel of senior pathologists. As Livia works on one body, a crime scene investigator delivers a new one. He tells her that because she is a new pathologist, she is being given the messiest assignments first—the bodies of people who died of drug overdoses or suicides.