Chapter 9
“Leo?” I whispered.
He breathed into the phone.
“I’m not supposed to call.”
“Where are you?”
“In Mommy’s closet.”
My blood chilled.
“Why are you hiding?”
“Mommy is mad because the TV people left.”
I looked at Eleanor.
She was already calling Jonah.
“Is someone with you?”
“No.”
“Is your nanny there?”
“She got fired.”
Of course.
“What’s your address, sweetheart?”
He didn’t know.
He was four.
But he knew the name of the building.
He knew there was a blue fountain in the lobby.
He knew his room had a rocket ship nightlight.
It was enough.
Jonah found him.
Police and child services arrived thirty minutes later.
Sabrina opened the door in silk pajamas and a smile.
Then Leo ran from the closet with Christian’s old phone in his hand.
The smile died.
They found sedatives in the bathroom.
A contract assigning Leo’s guardianship to Christian’s mother if Sabrina became “unfit.”
Christian’s mother, Margaret Prescott.
A woman I had met twice.
Both times she looked at me like I was furniture her son had overpaid for.
Leo was removed temporarily and placed with an emergency foster family.
Sabrina called me screaming.
“You ruined my son’s life!”
I held the phone away from my ear.
“No. I answered when he called.”
Her voice dropped.
“You think you’re good? Christian loved me first.”
“Then why are we both bleeding?”
Silence.
I hung up.
The next morning, Margaret Prescott arrived at the hospital with two lawyers.
She demanded access to me.
Eleanor denied it.
Margaret smiled.
“Tell Genevieve I have the original fertility consent forms.”
My stomach turned.
Eleanor’s eyes sharpened.
May you like
Margaret continued.
“She signed more than she remembers.”
