Chapter 11 — The Mother Who Came Back
I opened the door.
Erin Vale stood in the hallway.
She looked thinner than the woman in the photograph.
Her dark hair had been cut short.
A scar crossed the side of her neck.
But she was alive.
Maisie did not move.
Erin took one step forward.
“Baby.”
Maisie slapped her.
The sound filled the apartment.
Erin accepted it.
Maisie hit her again.
Then her strength disappeared.
She grabbed the front of Erin’s coat and began sobbing.
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let me think I was alone.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Erin closed her eyes.
Maisie pushed away from her.
“You don’t get to come back because your plan worked.”
“It didn’t work.”
“Adrian is in jail.”
“And one of his men escaped.”
“That’s why you’re here?”
Erin looked at me.
“Partly.”
I folded my arms.
“You sent your daughter to find a stranger.”
“I sent her to the man who saved my life.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“I knew what you did when nobody was watching.”
“That was six years ago.”
“You were still the best option.”
Maisie laughed bitterly.
“I’m glad I won.”
Erin’s face tightened.
The guilt was real.
It was not enough.
Dana arrived twenty minutes later with two detectives.
Erin was taken into custody for questioning.
Before leaving, she asked for five minutes alone with Maisie.
Maisie refused.
Then changed her mind.
I stood in the kitchen while they spoke in the living room.
Their voices stayed low.
I heard only pieces.
“—should have trusted you…”
“—you chose the files…”
“—I chose your life…”
“—you weren’t there to see it…”
Then silence.
Erin left without hugging her.
Maisie slept on the couch.
At three in the morning, I found her sitting on the kitchen floor eating dry cereal from the box.
“You have bowls,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why are they on the top shelf?”
“I’m tall.”
“That feels discriminatory.”
I sat beside her.
For a while, we ate cereal in silence.
Then she asked, “Do you hate your brother?”
“Yes.”
“Will you always?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hate my mom.”
“You love her too.”
Maisie’s eyes filled.
“That makes it worse.”
“I know.”
She glared at me.
“Don’t say that.”
I nodded.
“Fair.”
The next morning, Dana began the emergency foster placement process.
Maisie could stay with me temporarily if I passed a background check, home inspection, and training.
Erin objected from police custody.
“She should be with me.”
Dana’s answer was blunt.
“You staged your death, involved your daughter in a criminal investigation, and sent her alone across the city. At the moment, you are not the safest person in her life.”
Erin looked at Maisie.
Maisie stared at the wall.
The judge approved a thirty-day emergency placement with me.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, panic set in.
I had agreed to a seat.
Then a train ride.
Then a hospital.
Now a child was living in my home.
That evening, I received a call from my supervisor.
“Rowan, we need to talk about the layoffs.”
“I kept my job.”
“That was before the station footage went public.”
“What footage?”
“You fighting at the warehouse. Reporters connected you to the Cross case.”
“That happened off duty.”
“Our clients don’t care.”
My stomach sank.
“Are you firing me?”
There was a pause.
“We’re suspending you.”
I looked toward Maisie.
She sat at the table trying to repair the torn strap of her backpack.
I had become responsible for someone at the exact moment my income disappeared.
Then Maisie’s phone lit up.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
Your mother stole more than files. Ask Rowan what happened to his son.
Maisie looked at me.
“What does that mean?”
I had no answer.
But suddenly, I remembered something Hannah’s doctor had told me after the crash.
May you like
Our baby had survived for seventeen minutes.
And his body had never been shown to me.
