Chapter 6 - THE NOTE
Daniel stared at the photograph until the words blurred.
I cannot give Noah the home he deserves. Please let Melissa Grant make decisions for him.
His name was at the bottom.
“I never wrote that.”
Priya enlarged the image. “It’s a printout. We need the original and whatever was used to create it.”
Daniel paced her small office. “Will the judge believe me?”
“We bring evidence. That’s what the hearing is for.”
Priya found something else. The note had been dated four months earlier, on a day Daniel had been moved to a different prison after a medical emergency. His property, including all writing materials, had been sealed during the transfer.
She requested the prison records.
Meanwhile, Noah’s school counselor returned Priya’s call. Noah had been falling asleep in class. He was often missing lunch, even though Melissa collected the monthly support payments from a fund Rachel had set up for his care.
“The sandwich,” Daniel said. “He gave me his breakfast.”
The counselor paused. “Mr. Mercer, yesterday Noah told me he was scared to go home.”
Priya asked the counselor to make a formal report. Then she called the child protection office herself.
The next morning, Daniel went to the school to meet the assigned caseworker. He stayed across the street, as instructed.
The dismissal bell rang. Children poured through the doors.
Noah did not come out.
The caseworker rushed over, holding her phone. “Melissa checked him out an hour ago.”
Daniel looked down the empty sidewalk.
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“Where did she take him?”
The caseworker’s expression changed. “She told the school they were leaving the state.”
