Chapter 3 - The Call From School
At 3:07 p.m., my phone rang.
Caleb’s school.
For one second, I could not answer.
My fingers would not move.
Agent Ortiz saw the screen and took the phone from me.
She activated the speaker.
“Mrs. Whitmore?” said the school receptionist. “This is Brookside Academy. We have your son in the front office.”
My knees weakened.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes,” the receptionist said quickly. “But Mr. Whitmore arrived about ten minutes ago and requested to take Caleb home early.”
Every person in the study turned toward Andrew.
He went still.
The receptionist continued.
“We told him we needed your approval, but he said you had a medical emergency and were unable to answer the phone.”
I looked at Andrew.
He had been standing in front of me the entire time.
But he had sent someone.
“Who came for him?” Agent Ortiz asked.
The receptionist hesitated.
“A woman named Natalie Brooks.”
Natalie gasped.
“What?”
Agent Ortiz looked at her.
“You went to Caleb’s school?”
Natalie shook her head violently.
“No.”
“Your Mercedes was recorded entering the school parking lot at 2:51 p.m.”
Natalie’s face collapsed.
“I didn’t know what he was doing.”
Andrew snapped, “Stop talking.”
Natalie turned on him.
“No.”
The word came out louder than anyone expected.
“No. I am done covering for you.”
Andrew stared at her.
Natalie looked at Agent Ortiz.
“He called me while I was driving away from here. He told me to go to the school and say Claire had fainted.”
My body turned cold.
“What?”
“He said Caleb needed to come home because there was a family emergency.”
“Did you see Caleb?” I asked.
Natalie shook her head.
“The receptionist said they needed to verify it. I left.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Natalie looked at my cheek.
The mark from Andrew’s hand was darkening.
“I thought you would come home and forgive him,” she whispered. “I thought you would let him explain everything, and we would figure it out.”
I stared at her.
“You thought I would forgive the woman who helped him try to take my child?”
“I didn’t know about Argentina. I didn’t know about the fake passports.”
“But you knew he was married.”
Her face twisted.
“I knew he was unhappy.”
“No,” I said. “You knew he was willing to lie.”
Agent Ortiz ended the call with the school and gave instructions to the officers outside.
“Two units are already there,” she said. “Caleb will remain inside until Claire arrives.”
Andrew turned toward me.
“Let me speak to him.”
“No.”
“Claire, please.”
“No.”
“He is going to be scared.”
“You should have thought of that before you planned to steal him.”
“I wasn’t stealing him.”
“What would you call it?”
“I was taking my son somewhere safe.”
“Safe from me?”
“Safe from this investigation.”
I looked at him.
“You mean safe from the truth.”
Andrew’s face hardened.
“You have no idea what people like them do when they want someone destroyed.”
“People like them?”
He looked at Agent Ortiz.
“The federal government. My first wife. Her lawyers. They will use Caleb against me.”
“No,” I said. “You used Caleb against everyone.”
Andrew took a breath.
Then his voice softened.
He used the tone that once made me believe he was reasonable.
“Claire, I know you’re hurt. I know what you saw with Natalie is unforgivable. But Caleb needs both of us.”
I almost broke.
Because part of me wanted that sentence to be true.
I wanted the man who had helped Caleb build Lego cities on the living-room floor to be real.
I wanted our son to have a father who loved him.
But love did not build false passports.
Love did not draft plans for how to convince a child his mother had abandoned him.
Love did not place airline tickets in a safe and wait for the right moment to run.
“Caleb needs a father,” I said. “Not a man who sees him as escape luggage.”
Andrew’s eyes filled.
For one moment, he looked devastated.
Then he looked down at the floor.
May you like
“I never wanted it to become this.”
“It became this the first time you lied.”
