Chapter 3 - BEFORE MIDNIGHT
“Where are they taking her?” I asked.
Rosa lowered her voice. “The destination isn't on the copy I have.”
Ortiz took the phone and stepped into the hallway. When she returned, she was already calling officers near Cedar House.
“They're going to speak to your sister directly,” she told me. “Nobody here gets to decide for her over the phone.”
Ryan sat in a chair with an officer beside him.
“She needs specialized care,” he said. “I have authority to arrange it.”
“Then provide the documents,” Ortiz replied.
He looked at Vanessa. She looked away.
A paramedic examined Lily in the club's small office. I stayed beside her while she answered questions in a voice so polite it hurt.
“Does it hurt here?”
“A little. Sorry.”
“You don't have to apologize.”
“Daddy says I make people worry on purpose.”
The paramedic paused, then continued gently.
My mother came to the doorway. “I'll take her home.”
Lily slid behind my arm.
“Not Daddy's home.”
“My house, darling.”
I looked at Mom. “Did you know?”
“James, this isn't the time.”
“That's not an answer.”
Ortiz interrupted before Mom could respond. A child protection worker was on the way. Nobody would simply hand Lily back to Ryan after what witnesses had described.
Then the detective turned to me.
“And you need to understand something. Kicking him doesn't disappear because you're angry for a good reason.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I glanced at Lily. She was studying my shoes.
“I should have gone to her first.”
Ortiz nodded once. “Give your statement. Stay reachable.”
Lily got a clean shirt from the club gift shop. The bridesmaid brought her crackers. Ryan was taken outside in handcuffs, still insisting everyone had misunderstood.
He stopped beside Vanessa.
“Call Nolan,” he said.
She squeezed her bouquet so hard a stem snapped.
By the time the child protection worker finished arranging an emergency placement with me, my hands were shaking from doing nothing.
My mother offered to drive.
“No,” I said.
Lily climbed into the back seat with a borrowed booster and fell asleep holding my jacket.
At a red light, my phone buzzed.
Rosa had sent a photograph of the transfer form.
May you like
The signature authorizing it wasn't Ryan's.
It was my mother's.
