Chapter 3 - NINE MONTHS
Rebecca sent me to an apartment owned by her law firm.
No hotel registration.
No family address.
No place where Ethan could easily arrive and create another confrontation.
At seven the next morning, I sat across from her at a small kitchen table while Lily slept in the bedroom.
Rebecca had printed the documents.
She circled dates in red.
“Look.”
The first report was nine months old.
It claimed I had forgotten to pick Lily up from school.
I remembered the day.
Ethan had volunteered to pick her up because I had a dentist appointment.
He never arrived.
The school called me.
I left the dentist halfway through the appointment and drove across town.
The report did not mention Ethan.
It said only that Lily had remained at school forty-three minutes after dismissal because of maternal oversight.
The next document involved medication.
Lily had suffered a fever in January.
Margaret had offered to stay with her while I went to the pharmacy.
According to the file, I had administered the wrong dosage.
That had never happened.
Then came a report from a private counselor I had never met.
The document described me as emotionally volatile, controlling, and prone to isolating Lily from extended family.
“Who wrote this?”
Rebecca studied the name.
“Dr. Martin Vale.”
“I’ve never met him.”
“That may not matter if Ethan has been consulting him privately and describing your behavior.”
I stared at the page.
They had taken ordinary moments from my life and rewritten them.
Every disagreement.
Every schedule mistake.
Every time I had defended Lily.
Rebecca leaned closer.
“This is not a custody dispute that suddenly turned ugly.”
“I know.”
“This is preparation.”
“For what?”
“For the moment you reacted.”
I thought about Margaret hitting Lily.
Brooke spitting on me.
Ethan siding with them.
A cold realization spread through me.
“They wanted last night.”
Rebecca nodded.
“They may not have planned the exact fight.”
“But they wanted me to leave.”
“Yes.”
My phone buzzed.
Ethan.
Then again.
Margaret.
Then Brooke.
Rebecca took the phone from me.
“Do not answer verbally.”
I opened Ethan’s message.
WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?
A second message arrived.
YOUR ERRATIC BEHAVIOR IS EXACTLY WHY WE WERE CONCERNED.
Rebecca saw it.
Her eyes narrowed.
“He’s writing for a judge.”
I felt sick.
Then a third message appeared.
RETURN LILY BY 10 A.M. OR I WILL CONTACT THE POLICE.
Rebecca reached for her laptop.
“He already contacted someone.”
“How do you know?”
“Because people who intend to call the police usually just call.”
She typed quickly.
“They’re creating a timeline.”
A knock sounded at the apartment door.
I froze.
Rebecca walked to the security monitor.
Two police officers stood in the hallway.
May you like
Beside them was Ethan.
And in his hand was a court order.
