Chapter 5: The Room Where They Waited
The supervised visit was arranged for the following afternoon in a small room at the police station — grey walls, a table bolted to the floor, two chairs on one side and one on the other.
My parents were already seated when I walked in.
My mother had her hands folded in her lap.
My father sat with his arms crossed, the same posture he'd held at the party.
They looked like people waiting for a delayed flight.
Inconvenienced.
Not afraid.
That made it worse.
I sat down.
Officer Reyes stood near the door.
For a moment no one spoke.
Then my mother said, "You look tired, sweetheart."
"Don't," I said.
She pressed her lips together.
I looked at my father.
"I want to know one thing.
And I want you to tell me the truth.
Not the version you've been practicing since yesterday.
The truth."
He met my eyes.
"I've always told you the truth."
"You told me Nora was sick.
You told me she d*ed.
You told me children sometimes just don't make it." I kept my voice level.
"You told me that for thirty years."
He didn't answer.
"Was Lily next?" I asked.
"Is that what this was?
Was she going to be — placed — the way Nora was?"
My mother's chin moved.
Just slightly.
"That is a ridiculous thing to suggest," my father said.
"Then why was she dr*gged?"
"We explained that.
She was overexcited.
We gave her something to calm her—"
"The doctors found enough sedative in her system to put down a grown man." My voice cracked on the last word.
I let it.
"She is four years old.
She weighs thirty-eight pounds.
What you gave her was not a calming dose.
It was something else entirely.
And I want to know why."
My father's eyes moved to the corner of the room.
Not to my mother.
Not to me.
To the corner, like there was something there he was calculating.
"We were trying to protect her," he said finally.
"From what?"
Silence.
"From what?" I said again, louder.
"From you." My mother's voice was quiet and precise.
"From the life you're building.
From that man.
From the instability."
I stared at her.
"Marcus is stable.
Marcus is kind.
Marcus pulled your granddaughter out of a dumpster with his bare hands."
"He's not right for you," she said.
"He never has been.
And that child—"
"Her name is Lily."
"—needs a proper environment.
A proper family.
We were trying to help."
"By dr*gging her and throwing her in the garbage."
"We were going to take her," my father said.
Flat.
Like a fact.
"Before the wedding.
Before you made it legal and complicated.
We were going to take her somewhere safe and you were going to move on and eventually you would have understood."
The room was completely silent.
Officer Reyes had gone very still near the door.
I looked at my father for a long time.
"Take her where?" I asked.
He said nothing.
"Take her where?" I said again.
He looked at the corner of the room.
"The same place you took Nora," I said.
His jaw tightened.
That was all.
But it was enough.
I stood up.
My legs were steadier than I expected.
"I'm done," I told Officer Reyes.
She opened the door.
I walked out without looking back.
In the hallway, Marcus was waiting.
He took one look at my face and didn't ask any questions.
He just put his arms around me and I stood there, in the corridor of a police station, and finally let myself shake.
"They were going to take her," I said into his shoulder.
"I know," he said.
"They had a plan."
"I know."
"They've done this before."
He held me tighter.
"I know."
We stood there until I stopped shaking.
It took a while.
When I finally pulled back, I wiped my face with the back of my hand and looked at him.
"I need to find Claire," I said.
May you like
He nodded.
"Then we find Claire."
