Chapter 6 - The Calls We Almost Had
The next morning, Sofia’s teacher met me in an empty classroom.
“Your daughter is bright,” Ms. Dizon said. “But she’s been exhausted.”
She showed me missed assignments.
Then attendance records.
Some days Sofia had missed school because Vanessa left before Caleb woke up. Other days, she had gone home at lunch to check on him.
“She told me her brother needed her,” Ms. Dizon said.
I looked at the little desks.
My daughter had been sitting in one of them worrying about dinner.
I had worried about whether she liked the shoes I mailed.
“Why didn’t anyone reach me?”
“We used the number in the file. We sent messages through her mother.”
She turned the screen toward me.
The father’s contact number had been changed.
It wasn’t mine.
There was an email too.
The same false account Mrs. Reyes had shown me.
I sat back.
Vanessa hadn’t simply kept me uninformed.
She had built a version of me who was always too busy to answer.
Ms. Dizon hesitated.
“There was one time Sofia asked to use the office phone. The call didn’t connect.”
That night, I asked my daughter about it.
She was sitting on the hotel bed, folding Caleb’s shirt.
“I knew part of your number,” she said. “I thought I remembered the rest.”
“Why didn’t you ask Mama?”
Her hands stopped.
I hated myself for the question before she answered.
“Oh,” I said quietly. “Right.”
Sofia went back to folding.
“She found out I tried.”
“What happened?”
“She took the tablet.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. After that, we only talked to you on her phone.”
Caleb came out of the bathroom wearing pajamas I had bought that afternoon.
“Are we in trouble for telling?”
I set my phone down.
Both children looked at it.
I realized how many serious conversations in their lives had happened with a phone between them and the adult who was supposed to care.
I put it in a drawer.
“No. You’re not in trouble.”
“Even if Mama gets mad?”
“Even then.”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“She says you’ll leave again when your money runs out.”
I had no answer ready that wouldn’t sound like another promise made through a screen.
Before I could speak, my phone began vibrating inside the drawer.
May you like
A message from Vanessa appeared on the screen.
Ask your precious daughter what she stole from my bedroom.
