Chapter 7: Eleven Names

The man from Child Protective Services sat me down in the family room at midnight.

He had a tired face and a clean folder.

Sawyer stood behind him in the doorway, with a man holding a camera at his shoulder.

The camera was not from any station I knew.

"I'm sorry to do this tonight," the caseworker said.

"A report came in that Lottie's mother is emotionally unstable, and that her father has been barred from seeing her."

"By whom?"

"I can't say who made it."

"I can," I said, and looked at the doorway.

Sawyer smiled at me, sadly, for the camera.

"Hannah is in grief," he said. "I'm worried about our daughter's safety. That's all I want."

"Take that camera out," the caseworker said, without turning around.

"It's a friend of the department. He's documenting my effort to be present."

"Take it out, sir, or I close this file and call my supervisor."

The cameraman looked at Sawyer, who nodded, and the man backed into the hall.

I opened my phone.

My hands were steady now.

"At five-forty this morning my husband sent me two messages," I said. "Read them."

I held out the phone.

The caseworker read the first one, and his eyebrows rose.

He read the second one, and his face closed.

"'Monday I file for custody of Lottie,'" he said slowly.

"'A judge will see a night-shift baker with no savings, and a breakdown on video.'"

"He sent that before anybody reported me," I said.

"It looks that way."

"He also called the department's friend with the camera. He wants a video of me crying."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Saved Her Son and Let Mine Burn from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.