Chapter 1
The moment Dr. Bennett said my daughter's name, I knew something terrible had happened.
I had been running through the hospital corridor so fast that my shoes kept slipping against the polished floor.
My chest burned.
My hands shook.
And all I could think about was the message Maya had sent me.
Mom, please come. I'm scared.
I had seen it only twenty minutes earlier.
Twenty minutes.
That was how long it had taken me to reach the hospital.
But when I saw Dr. Bennett standing outside the emergency department, I knew twenty minutes had been too long.
"Nia."
His voice was quiet.
I grabbed his arm.
"Where is she? Where's my daughter?"
He looked at the floor.
"Please tell me she's okay."
"Nia, I'm so sorry."
My stomach dropped.
"No."
"We did everything we could."
"No, don't say that."
"Maya suffered severe injuries. Her heart stopped during surgery."
I stepped backward.
The hallway seemed to tilt beneath my feet.
"No. She called me. She was waiting for me."
Dr. Bennett reached toward me.
"She's gone, Nia."
My handbag slipped from my fingers.
Everything inside spilled across the floor.
My keys.
My wallet.
A photograph of Maya at her high school graduation.
I stared at that photograph.
Her bright smile.
Her beautiful brown eyes.
The white dress she had begged me to buy.
She had been nineteen years old.
Nineteen.
And somebody was telling me I would never hear her voice again.
"You're lying," I whispered.
Dr. Bennett's eyes filled with tears.
"I wish I were."
I tried to walk past him.
"I need to see her."
"Nia—"
"That's my baby!"
My scream echoed down the corridor.
A nurse hurried toward us, but I pushed past her.
I didn't care who saw me.
I didn't care how loudly I cried.
My daughter had been alive that morning.
She had kissed my cheek before leaving the house.
She had complained about the weather.
She had promised to pick up groceries.
And now she was gone.
Dr. Bennett guided me toward a chair.
"There are some things we need to discuss."
I shook my head.
"Not now."
"Your daughter was conscious when the ambulance arrived."
My breathing stopped.
"She was?"
"Briefly."
"Did she say anything?"
He hesitated.
"She kept asking for you."
Something inside me broke.
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
"Why didn't anybody call me?"
"We tried."
I looked up.
"What?"
"Several calls were placed to your number."
"That's impossible."
Dr. Bennett exchanged a troubled glance with the nurse.
Then he reached into a small evidence envelope.
"Her phone was recovered with her belongings. The police have authorized us to show you something."
He handed me Maya's phone.
The screen was cracked near the corner.
I recognized the purple case immediately.
I had bought it for her birthday.
A conversation with my number was open.
Her last message appeared near the bottom.
Mom, please come. I'm scared.
I touched the screen.
"Baby," I whispered.
Then I saw the reply.
Stop calling me. I'm not coming.
My eyes moved over those words again.
And again.
They had been sent from my number.
But I had never written them.
"I didn't send this."
Dr. Bennett leaned closer.
"What did you say?"
"I never sent that message."
A familiar voice came from behind me.
"Nia?"
Marcus.
My boyfriend of three years.
He rushed toward me wearing his charcoal jacket, his expression full of practiced concern.
I had called him while driving to the hospital.
He reached for my shoulders.
"Oh, sweetheart. I'm so sorry."
I couldn't speak.
He looked at Maya's phone.
Then he said something strange.
"Maybe Maya misunderstood the message."
I slowly lifted my head.
"What?"
"She was probably frightened. Maybe she read it wrong."
My tears stopped for one terrible second.
"Marcus."
"Yes?"
"I never told you what the message said."
His face changed.
It was small.
Barely noticeable.
But I had lived with that man long enough to recognize fear when it passed through his eyes.
"I just assumed—"
"Assumed what?"
He reached for my hand.
"You're upset. You're not thinking clearly."
Then his jacket shifted.
And I saw something.
The corner of my phone.
My black phone.
The one I had been searching for all morning.
It was sticking out of his pocket.
I stared at it.
"Why do you have my phone?"
Marcus froze.
"Nia, listen."
I reached into his pocket before he could stop me.
He grabbed my wrist.
"Give me a second."
I pulled away.
"Don't touch me!"
The nurse stepped between us.
Dr. Bennett straightened.
"Sir, please step back."
Marcus raised both hands.
"Everybody calm down."
But I wasn't listening.
I was staring at my phone.
The battery was almost dead.
The screen was unlocked.
I opened the messaging application.
Maya's conversation wasn't there.
My stomach twisted.
I opened the deleted messages folder.
And found it.
Stop calling me. I'm not coming.
Sent at 11:46 the previous night.
From my phone.
My fingers turned cold.
At that time, I had been asleep.
Marcus had been sitting beside me on the couch.
He had offered to charge my phone.
I remembered thanking him.
I remembered him kissing my forehead.
And I remembered waking up to find my phone missing.
"Why?" I whispered.
Marcus moved toward me.
"Nia, there's something you don't understand."
I backed away.
"You sent that to my daughter."
"I was trying to protect you."
"Protect me from what?"
He swallowed.
His eyes darted toward Dr. Bennett.
"Not here."
I looked down again.
There was another deleted message.
One I hadn't noticed.
It had been sent to Maya earlier that evening.
Don't tell your mother what you saw.
For several seconds, I couldn't understand what I was reading.
Then Maya's frightened voice seemed to return to me.
Mom, please come.
I'm scared.
I thought about the way she had avoided Marcus at dinner.
The way she had locked her bedroom door.
The way she had whispered that she needed to tell me something important.
And the way Marcus had insisted she was becoming disrespectful.
I slowly raised my eyes.
"What did my daughter see?"
Marcus's lips parted.
Nothing came out.
I stepped closer.
"What did Maya see, Marcus?"
He looked toward the exit.
May you like
And that was when I realized something worse than losing my daughter.
The man who had been sleeping beside me might know exactly why she was dead.
