When Love Walked Away novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Four Missed Calls
Theresa sees four missed calls from home during a meeting, hears Tilly whisper from a hot car, and walks out; Find My puts Brodie at a country club.
My phone buzzed against the conference table for the fourth time in ten minutes.
I turned it over under my notes and saw the word HOME.
Home was a number I never ignored.
Tilly was at daycare until three, and my husband never called me from the house.
Four missed calls sat in a stack on the screen.
The first was at 12:52.
The last was at 1:12, and it was still ringing.
"Theresa," said my boss from the head of the table, "we're in the middle of the rate sheet."
"I know," I said.
I stood up with the phone in my hand.
Everyone looked at me, and nobody breathed.
I walked into the hallway and let the door swing shut behind me.
I pressed call back with my thumb.
It rang once.
The line opened, and there was a long rough breath, and then a very small voice.
"Mommy?"
"Tilly, baby, where are you?"
"I'm in Daddy's car," she whispered.
My whole body went cold, in an office that was seventy degrees.
"Is Daddy with you?"
"He went in somewhere. He said two minutes and ice cream after."
"How long ago was that, sweetheart?"
"I counted to a thousand," Tilly said.
"Twice."
Her voice cracked on the last word, and I heard her swallow.
"Mommy, it's so hot."
"I know, baby. I'm coming."
"My hair's all wet and the seat is burning my legs."
"Can you open the door?"
"I pulled the handle and it doesn't go."
"Okay. Okay, listen to me."
I was already running, and I don't remember deciding to.
My heels were in my hand by the stairwell.
"Tilly, what can you see out the window?"
"Cars. And a big yellow crane."
"A crane."
"With a red light on the top, and it's very high."
"Good girl. That's good, that's so good."
"My tablet's going to die," she said.
"It's two percent."
"Don't hang up, baby, I'm right here."
"I called Daddy lots of times," she said.
"He doesn't pick up."
"I know. I'm coming."
"Mommy, I'm sleepy."
"Keep counting for me. Count out loud and don't stop."
"One," she said.
"Two."
"Three. Mommy?"
The line went dead.
I stared at the black screen on the stairs, and my own face stared back.
I called Brodie.
It rang five times and went to the voicemail he had recorded for work.
"You've reached Brodie Dalton at Saguaro Trust."
I called again.
Voicemail.
I texted him one line in capital letters: WHERE IS TILLY.
The three dots never came.
I hit the lobby doors with my shoulder and the heat hit me back.
It was 116 degrees on the bank sign across the street.
I had a daughter somewhere in that, in a locked car, counting.
I called 911 from the parking lot, and I made myself speak slowly.
"My five-year-old is locked in a car in this heat."
"Ma'am, where is the car?"
"I don't know."
"Do you have a street, a business, a plate?"
"I don't know yet."
"I need a location to send anyone."
"Then I'll get you one," I said, and I hung up on her.
I needed my hands free for the next call.
I dialed my mother-in-law, because Gladys lived ten minutes from the daycare and knew where Brodie went.
She picked up on the second ring.
"Theresa, I'm in the middle of something."
"Is Tilly with you?"
"Of course not. Brodie has her today, he told me this morning."
"Did Brodie tell you where?"
There was a pause that went a half second too long.
"He said lunch, I think," Gladys said.
"I didn't ask."
"Gladys, Tilly just called me from his car."
"She's fine."
"She said it's hot. She said the door won't open."
"Brodie has her, Theresa."
"Then tell me where he is."
"I won't have you making a scene over a child being dramatic."
"Gladys."
"Don't call his office and embarrass him," she said, and the line clicked.
I stood on the hot concrete with the phone shaking in my hand.
Then I opened Find My Family, the app I had made Brodie install after the wedding and he had called silly.
A blue dot blinked on the map eleven miles away.
It sat on a long green shape with a name across it in thin gold letters.
COPPER RIDGE COUNTRY CLUB.
Brodie had told me he was at a client meeting all day.
He had never once taken our daughter anywhere that had a dress code.
I got in my car and drove toward the blue dot with the air conditioning on high and the phone on the seat.
I did not stop for a single red light.
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