Chapter 4
We were sitting in Ethan’s hospital room that evening, watching him color, when the nurse knocked on the door.
Her face was tight.
“Sarah?” she said.
“There’s a man out front asking for you. Says he’s your stepfather. Security stopped him, but he’s yelling that he has legal right to take Ethan home. We called the police.”
Sarah went pale.
She grabbed Ethan’s hand, pulled him closer to her on the bed.
Ethan looked up, confused, his crayon pausing mid-stroke.
“Is the bad man here?” he asked.
Sarah kissed his forehead, her hands shaking.
“No, baby. He’s not coming in. Security won’t let him.”
I stood up, my jaw tight.
“I’ll go talk to security,” I said.
“Make sure he’s gone when the police get here.”
I found Richard by the front entrance, red-faced, screaming at two security guards who were holding him back.
He saw me, strained against their grip.
“This is kidnapping!” he yelled.
“You stole my wife’s daughter, you stole my grandson! I’ll have you arrested! I’ll sue you for everything you have!”
The police arrived a minute later, two uniformed officers who took one look at Richard’s screaming, red face and stepped between him and me.
I showed them the restraining order Mark had emailed me that morning.
The lead officer read it, then turned to Richard.
“Sir,” he said.
“This order says you’re not allowed within 500 feet of these people. You’re in violation. You need to leave now, or we’re taking you to jail.”
Richard stared at the paper.
For a second, I thought he might calm down.
Then he laughed, a sharp, crazy sound.
“You think a piece of paper scares me?” he said.
He looked at me, his eyes cold.
“I have friends in this city. I’ll get to them. You’ll see. Ethan is mine. That locket is mine. Everything Lila had is mine.”
The officers cuffed him right there, read him his rights, led him to the back of a squad car.
He yelled the whole way, threats and curses, until the car pulled out of the parking lot.
I stood there for a minute, my hands shaking, until I felt a hand on my arm.
It was Sarah.
She’d come down after the nurse said Richard was gone, Ethan left with a child life specialist up on the floor.
“He’s never gonna stop, is he?” she said.
Her voice was small.
I put my arm around her, pulled her close.
“He will,” I said.
“Mark’s gonna make sure of it. We have the restraining order. We have proof he embezzled Lila’s money. We have proof he let Ethan’s insurance lapse. He’s not gonna hurt us again.”
That night, we sat in the small waiting room down the hall from Ethan’s room, going through the box of Lila’s things Sarah had brought with her.
Old photos, a few of her favorite books, the winter coat she’d hidden the locket in.
Sarah pulled a stack of envelopes out of the bottom of the box, tied with a faded blue ribbon.
Her name was written on each one, in Lila’s loopy handwriting.
“Mom wrote these for me,” she said.
She untied the ribbon, her fingers gentle.
“One for every birthday until I turned 30. She said if she wasn’t around to give them to me, I should open them on my birthday.”
She picked up the top envelope, the one for her 22nd birthday, which had been two months before.
She tore it open, pulled out a folded piece of paper.
She read it, her breath catching.
Then she handed it to me.
My hands shook as I read it.
Lila had written it a week before she died.
She talked about Sarah, about how proud she was of the woman she’d become, about Ethan, about how much she loved them both.
Then, at the bottom, in smaller writing, like she’d been scared to say it out loud:
I never stopped loving him, baby.
Your dad.
I was so scared after our fight, so scared he’d be angry, so scared I’d messed everything up, that I ran.
I thought if I stayed gone, I was keeping you safe.
But I was wrong.
If anything happens to me, if Richard ever hurts you, find him.
His name is Tom.
He makes jewelry in Dallas.
He has a scar on his left eyebrow from when he fell off his bike when he was 16.
He sings off-key to old country songs in the shower.
He will love you more than anything in the world.
He’s the only person who can keep you safe.
I folded the letter up, pressed it to my chest.
Tears ran down my face, fast and hot, and I didn’t even try to stop them.
Sarah leaned her head on my shoulder, crying too.
“I’m sorry she never came back,” she whispered.
“She wanted to. She was just so scared.”
“I know,” I said.
I kissed the top of her head.
“I know, baby. It’s okay. We’re all together now. That’s what she wanted.”
The next morning, Mark called.
He’d gotten access to Richard’s phone records and bank statements, thanks to the emergency motion.
He had proof Richard had spent over $60,000 of Lila’s life insurance on gambling and luxury trips for his mistress.
He had proof Richard had intentionally let Ethan’s insurance lapse two days before the boy’s diagnosis, to make a payment on a new sports car.
He had text messages from Richard to his bookie, saying he’d sell the “old silver locket” for $20,000 to pay off a debt by the end of the week.
“This is a slam dunk,” Mark said.
“At the hearing day after tomorrow, we’re not just terminating his guardianship. We’re pressing criminal charges for embezzlement, child endangerment, and violating the restraining order. He’s going away for a long time, Tom.”
I hung up the phone, turned to Sarah.
She was sitting on the edge of Ethan’s bed, watching him sleep, the locket around her neck now, the chain glinting in the soft hospital light.
“Mark says we’re gonna win,” I said.
She looked up at me, smiled through her tears.
“I know,” she said.
May you like
She touched the locket, her fingers gentle.
“Mom’s watching out for us.”
