Chapter 2: Forty-One Calls
After the hearing, Sandra didn't cry.
She didn't beg.
She waited until we reached the hallway, and then she looked at Emma with an expression I had never seen on her face before.
"You'll regret this."
Emma didn't flinch.
She just moved slightly closer to me.
Sandra's attorney pulled her away before she could say anything else, but the damage was already done.
I felt Emma's hand go stiff in mine.
In the car, she was quiet for a long time.
Then she said, very carefully, like she had been practicing the words:
"She told me you didn't want me anymore.
That you only showed up to the hearings because your lawyer made you."
I couldn't speak for a moment.
"Emma.
That is not true."
"I know." She looked out the window.
"I found the voicemails, Dad.
All forty-one of them.
She deleted them before I could hear them.
I only found out because Grandma kept a list."
I didn't know my mother had done that.
I didn't know she had been watching, all that time, keeping count while I was losing hope.
Emma turned to look at me.
"She saved every date.
Every time you called."
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What else had Sandra hidden — and what did Emma find that finally made her speak up in that courtroom?
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