Chapter 3 - The Baby
Jackson looked at me.
“What baby?”
I had the same question.
“There is no baby here,” I said.
Mia sniffled.
“Yes.”
“Where, sweetheart?”
She pointed toward the sewing room closet.
Officer Rivera opened it.
Inside were fabric boxes, winter coats, wrapping paper, and an old portable crib folded against the wall.
Nothing else.
Jackson rubbed both hands over his face.
“She’s confused.”
I snapped toward him.
“She just spent who knows how long locked in a room.”
“I’m not blaming her.”
“It sounds like you are.”
Cassandra stepped forward.
“Emily, please. She’s three.”
Officer Grant raised a hand.
“Stay where you are.”
Cassandra stopped.
I looked at Mia.
“What baby did Grandma take?”
“The crying baby.”
Jackson frowned.
“Mom doesn’t know anyone with a baby.”
Cassandra’s face changed.
Barely.
But I saw it.
Grant did too.
“You know something,” he said.
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“I’m worried about my niece.”
Rivera moved into the hallway.
“Let’s separate everyone.”
Twenty minutes later, I sat with Mia on Lorraine’s living room couch while a paramedic checked her.
Mia was dehydrated but otherwise stable.
The paramedic gave her water.
She drank too fast.
“Slow down, peanut,” I whispered.
Jackson paced near the kitchen.
Cassandra sat in the dining room with Officer Grant.
Then my phone rang.
Lorraine.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
I showed Grant.
He crossed the room quickly.
“Answer. Speakerphone.”
I did.
“Lorraine?”
There was road noise.
Then her voice.
“Emily, listen carefully.”
“Where are you?”
“I made a mistake.”
My throat closed.
“Where are you?”
“You don’t understand what Cassandra has done.”
Cassandra stood abruptly.
“Hang up!”
Officer Rivera blocked her.
Lorraine continued.
“I tried to fix it.”
“Fix what?”
“Mia wasn’t supposed to be left alone.”
My vision blurred with anger.
“You locked her in a room!”
“No. Cassandra did.”
Cassandra screamed from across the room.
“She’s lying!”
Jackson looked between his mother’s voice on the phone and his sister.
“What the hell is happening?”
Lorraine started crying.
I had never heard that woman cry.
Not once.
“Emily, please listen. There’s a child involved.”
“Mia is a child!”
“Another child.”
My skin prickled.
“The baby?”
Silence.
Then Lorraine whispered, “Yes.”
Grant stepped closer to the phone.
“Lorraine, this is Officer Grant. Tell me your location.”
She ignored him.
“Emily, Cassandra came here this morning with an infant.”
Cassandra shouted, “Mom!”
Lorraine’s voice shook harder.
“She said no one could know.”
Jackson went completely still.
“Whose infant?”
Lorraine didn’t answer.
I looked at Cassandra.
Her face had lost all color.
“Whose baby?” Jackson repeated.
May you like
Then Lorraine said something I never could have imagined.
“Jackson’s.”
