Chapter 10: Mrs. Hensley by Christmas

Every head in the office turned.

The two moms with permission slips stepped back against the wall.

The dad with the parking pass stopped arguing.

Max's hand went tight in mine.

"Mom," he said. "I'm sick."

"Come here. Right now."

Andrea crossed the room and pulled him away from me by the arm.

He stumbled into her coat.

His backpack slid off my shoulder and hit the floor.

"She has no right to take him," Andrea told the secretary. "None. She's nobody. She's his father's ex."

"We're not divorced," I said.

"You threw him out on the lawn."

"The porch."

One of the moms made a small sound that might have been a laugh.

Andrea spun on her.

"Is something funny?"

The mom looked at her shoes.

The door behind the front desk opened, and the principal came out.

She was a tall, calm woman in a gray suit. I had sat across from her at every parent conference for two years.

Andrea had never come to one.

"Is there a problem?" the principal asked.

"Yes," Andrea said. "Your office just handed my son to a woman with no legal right to him. I want to know who authorized it."

The principal looked at me, then at Max, then at the secretary.

The secretary turned her screen around.

"Ms. Ashwell is on Max's pickup list," the principal said. "His father added her two years ago. She's also his first emergency contact."

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