Chapter 2: Grandma Said You Weren't Coming
Officer Rivera carried Mia out of that sewing room, and the moment I saw her face, my legs almost gave out.
She was pale, her eyes were red from crying, and she was clutching the collar of her strawberry shirt with both fists the way she does when she's trying not to fall apart.
There was no injury I could see, but she flinched when the door behind her swung wider, and that flinch told me everything.
I dropped to my knees and pulled her in.
She pressed her face into my neck and said only one thing.
"Grandma said you weren't coming."
I couldn't speak.
I just held her tighter.
Officer Grant found a note on the kitchen counter.
He read it without expression, then turned to me slowly.
"Ma'am, did you know your mother-in-law had scheduled a custody consultation with a family attorney this week?"
I stared at him.
"She's not Mia's guardian.
She has no legal standing."
He nodded carefully.
"The note says she was keeping Mia somewhere safe until things got sorted out." He paused.
"Her words, not mine."
Jackson finally walked through the front door at that moment — not running, not pale with fear.
He looked at the officers, looked at me holding Mia, and the first words out of his mouth were:
"Let's not make this into something it isn't."
Officer Grant looked at him for a long moment.
Then he asked Jackson to step outside.
That was when Cassandra appeared in the hallway behind him.
She had been there the whole time.
And she was holding Mia's blue cup — the one I had packed that morning — like she had been waiting for someone to notice.
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What Emily found out about Jackson and Cassandra next made everything worse.
Click the link below to read the full story — the truth will shock you.
