Chương 9
Patricia could make it sound like a threat to disappear with my child.
“You sent her that?”
Caleb’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t think.”
“No.”
My voice was barely above a whisper.
“You didn’t.”
“I thought she was building some argument about the estate.”
“So you gave her ammunition against me?”
“I thought if I gave her one thing she’d stop asking.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That might be the stupidest sentence I’ve ever heard.”
“Dan.”
“No, Emily, this is not a mistake where he forgot to pick up milk.”
Caleb shot to his feet.
“I know that.”
“Then sit with it.”
“I am sitting with it.”
“You literally stood up.”
Under any other circumstances, it might have been funny.
Nobody laughed.
Caleb sat again.
His shoulders folded inward.
“I’m sorry.”
This time he did not look at me when he said it.
I believed he meant it.
That did not make me feel better.
Reyes came back in.
His expression told me the day had found another way to become worse.
“What now?”
I asked.
“We identified the source of the guardianship draft.”
Daniel crossed his arms.
“Who?”
“A private attorney in Cambridge.”
My pulse jumped.
“So she hired a lawyer?”
“Apparently she consulted one.”
“Did the lawyer prepare this?”
“Yes.”
“Then this was real.”
“It was real as a draft.”
Reyes chose each word carefully.
“The attorney says she declined to file it.”
“Why?”
“Because Patricia did not provide sufficient evidence to support the allegations, and because the attorney had concerns about inconsistencies in her account.”
A strange relief moved through me.
Some stranger had listened to Patricia and not believed her.
Then Reyes continued.
“The attorney also says Patricia became angry when told that.”
“When was this?”
“Six days ago.”
Daniel looked at me.
Six days ago Patricia had left a voicemail saying she hoped we could all act like adults before our trip.
I had deleted it without listening to the end.
“What inconsistencies?”
I asked.
“Among other things, she initially described herself as Lily’s grandmother.”
“She does that constantly.”
“When the attorney asked whether she was biologically related or had ever legally adopted you, Patricia acknowledged she had not.”
Caleb shook his head.
“She really thought she could just say she was Grandma and nobody would check?”
Reyes gave him a look.
“She also claimed she had been one of Lily’s primary caregivers.”
Daniel stared.
“She’s never been alone with Lily.”
“According to the attorney, Patricia later changed that description.”
“To what?”
“That she had provided regular support.”
“She brought two casseroles.”
The words escaped me.
Reyes paused.
I covered my face with one hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be.”
“She brought lasagna twice and somehow that became regular support.”
Daniel almost smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
Reyes continued.
“The attorney says Patricia was particularly focused on the trust.”
My hand dropped.
“So she knew.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“That is not clear yet.”
“Could the attorney have told her?”
“Patricia raised it first.”
Daniel leaned against the desk.
“Then the letter wasn’t new.”
“No.”
Caleb looked confused.
“What do you mean?”
I turned toward him.
“She told you last night she had just found Dad’s letter.”
“Yeah.”
“If she talked to a lawyer six days ago about the trust, she already knew.”
Caleb’s face drained.
“She lied.”
Daniel looked at him without sympathy.
“She told you what you needed to hear.”
Caleb sat back hard.
I could almost watch the pieces rearranging themselves in his head.
Patricia had not needed Caleb because she trusted him.
She had identified him as the easiest door.
That realization seemed to hurt him more than Daniel’s anger.
Reyes took another breath.
“There’s one more thing.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course there is.”
“The attorney saved an email Patricia sent after their meeting.”
“What did she write?”
“She accused the attorney of refusing to protect a child because of technicalities.”
Daniel muttered, “Technicalities meaning parents.”
Reyes continued.
“She also wrote that if the courts would not act before you left Boston, she would have to handle the situation herself.”
The room went cold.
Caleb stared at the floor.
Daniel looked toward the hallway as if Patricia might somehow come through it again.
I held Lily tighter.
“That was six days ago?”
“Yes.”
“So this morning wasn’t spontaneous.”
“No.”
Reyes did not soften it.
“Based on what we know now, it appears she anticipated taking some action before your departure.”
My phone vibrated on the desk.
Everyone looked at it.
The screen showed Nora.
My best friend.
I almost ignored it.
Then a message appeared beneath her name.
Emily, there’s a video online.
A second message followed.
Someone filmed the airport.
Then a third.
Patricia is saying you tried to flee with her granddaughter.
I picked up the phone and read Nora’s messages twice.
Daniel was already beside me.
“What video?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t open anything yet,” Reyes said.
Too late.
A link preview had appeared beneath Nora’s last message.
The thumbnail showed Patricia on the airport floor with an officer’s knee near her shoulder.
I could see myself in the background holding Lily.
My face looked white and enormous with fear.
The caption beneath the video said, WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER FAMILY CUSTODY DISPUTE AT LOGAN.
Custody dispute.
I felt something hot rise behind my eyes.
“There is no custody dispute.”
Reyes leaned closer without touching my phone.
“Who posted it?”
I checked.
An account I had never seen.
The video already had thousands of views.
Comments were multiplying beneath it.
Somebody had added text over the footage.
SHE SAYS THEY’RE TAKING HER GRANDDAUGHTER OUT OF STATE.
Daniel swore.
“That’s not what happened.”
“No,” Reyes said.
“It isn’t.”
I scrolled before I could stop myself.
One comment said, Maybe grandma knows something we don’t.
Another said, Why are the parents running to Seattle?
Another person had written, Courts fail kids every day.
I locked the phone.
My hands were shaking again.
“She wanted this.”
Daniel looked at me.
May you like
“What?”
“She wanted people to see.”
