One October day in 1987, when Lauren was seven-years-old, her father, Ali, who’d had her for the weekend along with his new wife, reminded Cathy that he’d take her to school that day. Cathy decided to go have lunch with her daughter, arrived at the school, and asked for Lauren. The teacher told her that she hadn’t come to school that day and that she assumed Lauren was with her. Cathy immediately called Ali, who didn’t answer. She went to his apartment; it was empty. She went to the restaurant where he worked with his brother, who said he didn’t know where he was. She called the airport and asked if they were on a flight and was finally told, because she frantically said that her daughter may have been kidnapped, that they were on a flight to Jordan. He had stolen her.
One of the strongest ideas in Stolen is that redemption does not mean pretending the past never happened.