Chapter 11: Everyone Named in It

Maisie ran across the lawn in her bare feet and crashed into my legs.

I picked her up, and she locked her arms around my neck.

"Hazel, you came! I knew you'd come!"

"Hi, Mais. I'm here."

"Maisie!" my mother hissed from the driveway. "Inside. Now."

Maisie hid her face in my collar.

I felt the whole small weight of her, and I did not want to put her down.

Behind me, the front door banged.

Lacey came down the steps in her hoodie and slippers with her phone in her hand.

She did not look at me.

She walked straight up to our mother and said, loud enough for the street, "Stop."

"Lacey, go back inside."

"No. Stop yelling at her. Stop yelling at everybody."

Mom's mouth opened, and for once nothing came out.

Lacey took a breath that shook.

"I'm coming to the reading tomorrow. All of us are. So just let Hazel hold her, Mom. She's eight. She's in her pajamas."

My mother looked at the neighbor's phone, still pointed at her from across the street.

She turned on her heel and went inside.

Lacey held out her arms, and I handed Maisie over carefully.

"Thank you," I said.

She nodded, and she still would not meet my eyes.

At ten the next morning I stood outside the lawyer's building with Kenzie and her mom, looking up at the second-floor window.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Not Every Home Is Meant to Be Returned To from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.