My Daughter Vanished After A Curfew Fight—

After a curfew fight, my daughter Priya, 17, didn’t come home. At 12:43 a.m., a diner waitress called—she found Priya’s purse with her ID, but no Priya. A witness saw her arguing with a guy while wearing her blue hoodie. Police searches and grainy footage led nowhere, and guilt over my harsh text—“Be home by 10 or don’t come home”—haunted me. Weeks later, her friend Anika admitted Priya met “Dev,” a guy she’d been texting, at the diner. Police traced a burner phone and found Priya’s hoodie in an abandoned car, confirming she’d been alive recently. A

blurry video from a college party showed her, and a student confirmed “Pri” had crashed in her dorm. Three months later, Priya called, asking to come home. We reunited in Baltimore, where she’d been couch-hopping after ditching Dev. Therapy helped us rebuild. Dev was arrested. Priya’s return taught me kids need love, not just rules, to find their way back.