Chapter 4
I kept my promise about Monday.
Ava went to school in the same blue coat, carrying the same lunchbox. I walked her to the classroom door and watched her join her friends.
Only then did I breathe.
Over the weekend, Nia had sent the school a message withdrawing the transfer request. Mrs. Harris confirmed it when I called. Priya had also written to Nia about the statement bearing my signature.
Vanessa called twice. I didn’t answer.
On Monday afternoon, Nia asked to meet without Ava. We chose a café near my office. She arrived alone, holding a folder against her chest.
“Vanessa says you’re trying to make her look like a criminal,” she said as soon as we sat down.
“I haven’t spoken to her.”
“She’s scared.”
“Of what?”
Nia opened the folder. Inside was the original statement. I had seen photographs of it, but the ink looked worse in person. My name sat beneath a sentence I had never agreed to.
“I asked her who wrote this,” Nia said. “She said she copied your signature from the permission form for Ava’s class trip. She thought I’d ask you to sign a final version later.”
“She should have left the line blank.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t she tell you?”
Nia folded the folder closed. “She said she wanted everything ready because I kept changing my mind.”
I wondered how much of the plan had been Nia’s. She had requested the school records and packed the boxes. Vanessa had made it easier for her to keep going.
“Nia, did you ever intend to ask me before taking Ava?”
“I thought I would. Then the apartment manager wanted an answer, and you came to the house.”
I leaned back. “You were going to tell me after you got the apartment?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to tell you the truth now.”
I believed she was trying. I still needed the rest.
“Did you use that statement anywhere?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa?”
Nia didn’t answer.
I felt the table edge under my fingers. “Ask her.”
“She’ll think I’m accusing her.”
“She wrote my name on it.”
Nia looked at me for a long time. Then she took out her phone and sent Vanessa a message while I watched.
A reply came almost immediately. Nia read it, and her face drained.
“What?” I asked.
“She emailed it to Mr. Price.”
The apartment manager had received a document saying I consented to Ava moving.
Nia turned the screen toward me. Vanessa’s message said she had sent it as part of the application but told Mr. Price a final copy would follow.
I took a photograph of the message. “We need to correct it.”
Nia nodded.
We wrote Mr. Price together from our separate phones. I told him the statement was not signed by me and did not represent my consent. Nia told him to stop processing the application. He replied that he would remove the document from the file and await further instructions.
I forwarded everything to Priya.
When I looked up, Nia was crying.
“I never thought Vanessa would send it,” she said.
“You gave her a place in decisions about Ava that she shouldn’t have had.”
“I know.”
We sat there until her tears slowed. Then we talked about a schedule for Ava while we sorted out the marriage. Nia suggested keeping the arrangement we had used for six weeks. I agreed for now, with a written confirmation that neither of us would change Ava’s school or primary residence without discussing it.
Priya reviewed the wording later that day.
That evening, I called Denise. She was relieved the move had stopped. She asked if she should bring Ava’s boxes back.
“Please,” I said. “We’ll let Ava put her things away herself.”
Ava came to my brother’s for dinner. Julian had bought her the noodles she liked, and she spent ten minutes explaining her concert costume to him.
Afterward, I told her the plan she needed to know.
“Your school isn’t changing,” I said. “Mom and I will both tell you before we make any big decisions.”
She looked at the boxes Denise had brought over and asked, “Did Mom want to move me?”
“She thought about moving to another town. We talked, and that isn’t happening.”
“Would I have lived with you?”
“We would have worked out how to stay close to you. I’m sorry you heard about boxes before we explained anything.”
Ava leaned against me. “I don’t want to pick who I live with.”
“You don’t have to pick between us.”
She went back to her noodles, but she kept one hand on my arm.
Later, after Nia collected her, I found the paper crown Ava had made in my coat pocket. She had trusted me to keep it safe. I put it on the shelf where I couldn’t lose it.
The next morning, Priya called with a new concern. Mr. Price had forwarded the full apartment application. Vanessa had completed a section listing Ava as the child who would live there. She had also entered a move-in date: the Monday after the concert.
Nia’s name appeared on the application.
May you like
Beside it was an electronic signature.
Nia told me she had never signed it.
