Chapter 6
Police found Olivia’s house empty.
Closets open.
Medicine gone.
Lily’s preschool backpack dumped in the trash.
Daniel kept calling me.
I finally answered with Rebecca and Detective Harris present.
“Sarah,” he said, breathless. “I didn’t know Mom took her.”
“Is Lily yours?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I was drunk. It was before Emma was born. Madison worked for Mom. It happened once.”
Rebecca closed her eyes like she had heard that lie from too many men.
I asked, “Did you know Olivia used my money for Lily?”
“No.”
“Did you know my daughter was being neglected?”
“Mom said Emma was spoiled.”
“Your mother put her outside.”
“I didn’t think—”
“No. You didn’t.”
He started crying.
Real or not, I did not care.
“Sarah, if Lily is mine, we have to find her.”
That was the first decent sentence he had said.
Detective Harris took over.
“Mr. Miller, where would your mother go?”
Daniel named three places.
A church friend in Knoxville.
A cousin in Memphis.
A lake cabin outside Franklin.
The cabin was last.
It should have been first.
Because Olivia loved places without neighbors.
We drove there behind police.
The gravel road twisted through trees.
Rain started hitting the windshield.
I held Emma’s stuffed rabbit in my lap.
I had brought it without thinking.
At the cabin, Olivia’s car was parked behind the shed.
The front door was locked.
Police knocked.
No answer.
Then I heard crying.
Small.
Muffled.
From the back porch.
“Lily!” Grace screamed.
Officers moved fast.
They found Lily in a storage closet off the porch, wrapped in a thin blanket, clutching an empty juice box.
Alive.
Shivering.
Terrified.
Grace dropped to her knees.
Lily stared at her.
“Aunt Grace?”
Grace sobbed and reached for her.
Lily crawled into her arms.
Then officers found Olivia in the kitchen, calmly making tea.
She looked offended when they arrested her.
“I saved that child.”
Detective Harris said, “From whom?”
Olivia looked at me.
“From women like Sarah. Women who think money makes them mothers.”
Something in me snapped quiet.
“Money paid for your food, your housekeeper, your wine, your car, your clothes, and Lily’s school.”
Olivia lifted her chin.
“You owed this family.”
“No,” I said. “I owed my daughter safety. And I let you stand too close to her.”
Her smile faltered.
Daniel arrived as officers brought Olivia out.
He saw Lily in Grace’s arms.
Then he saw Emma in mine.
For once, he looked at both children like consequences had faces.
Olivia shouted at him.
“Tell them I did what you were too weak to do.”
Daniel whispered, “Mom, what did you do to Madison?”
May you like
Olivia’s face changed.
The rain seemed to stop around that question.
