Chapter 4
The police arrived in twelve minutes.
Officer Grant and Officer Lewis.
Two names I would remember for the rest of my life.
Officer Grant knelt in front of Lily.
Not too close.
Not too fast.
“Hi, Lily. I’m Officer Grant. Are you safe with your mom?”
Lily nodded hard and gripped me tighter.
Madison immediately started crying.
Fake crying.
Pretty crying.
The kind that leaves makeup intact.
“I was only trying to help. Emily came in violent.”
Officer Lewis looked at her cheek.
Then at mine.
Then at Lily’s wrist.
“Who put marks on the child?”
Madison stopped crying.
Daniel answered, “It got tense.”
Officer Lewis turned toward him.
“That was not my question.”
I showed the photos.
Then the form.
Then the backpack.
Officer Grant’s expression changed when he saw the medication.
“What is this medicine for?”
“Allergies and asthma,” I said. “She needs it with her.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Why was it packed?”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“We thought Lily should stay somewhere calm for a few days.”
I stared at him.
“We?”
Madison whispered, “Daniel said Emily was unstable.”
Officer Lewis looked at me.
“Unstable how?”
Before Daniel could answer, Lily whispered, “Daddy told me Mommy would cry and sign the paper.”
The room went silent.
Daniel’s face went white.
Madison looked at him.
“You told her that?”
I almost smiled.
May you like
Not because anything was funny.
Because the lie was turning around and biting the people who fed it.
