“She left me alone.”
“What?”
“She went to Hawaii.”
“I know where she went.”
“She left me here.”
There was silence.
Then Derek said something that made my stomach drop.
“She told me you were staying with Chloe’s family.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because the police called me.”
I looked toward the bedroom door.
“Does Mom know?”
“She knows.”
“Is she coming home?”
Another silence.
“I don’t know.”
I started crying again.
Derek’s voice softened.
“Maya, listen to me. I need you to tell the social worker exactly what happened.”
“I did.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“The money?”
“Yes.”
“The food?”
“Yes.”
“The calls?”
“Yes.”
“The notebook?”
“Yes.”
He breathed out slowly.
Then he said:
“Keep that notebook.”
“Why?”
“Don’t lose it.”
I didn’t understand.
“Why?”
“Because it shows what happened.”
Before I could ask anything else, he said goodbye.
The next morning, a social worker named Elena met with me.
She was calm and spoke slowly.
She asked me the same questions Deputy Collins had asked.
But then she asked something different.
“What do you want to happen?”
I stared at her.
“I want my mom to come home.”
Elena nodded.
“Anything else?”
“I want her to stop being angry with me.”
“Why do you think she’ll be angry?”
“Because I told people.”
Elena leaned forward.
“You didn’t tell people to get your mother in trouble.”
“I didn’t?”
“No.”
“You told people because you needed help.”
I looked down.
“I was scared.”
“That was the correct thing to do.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Then Elena placed a folder on the table.
“There are going to be adults making decisions about where you stay while this is investigated.”
“Am I going back home?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Can I go back when Mom returns?”
“We’ll see.”
I nodded.
Then Elena said something that made me realize this wasn’t just about my mother leaving me.
“There is another concern.”
“What?”
“Your mother has apparently told several people that you were staying with Chloe’s family.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“Because she didn’t want Derek to know.”
“That’s what we’re trying to understand.”
I looked at my hands.
“Is Derek angry?”
“He’s upset.”
“At me?”
“No.”
That answer came quickly.
“No, Maya. Not at you.”
Later that afternoon, Deputy Collins returned.
He had something with him.
My notebook.
I had left it on the kitchen table.
He handed it back to me inside a clear evidence bag.
“You can keep this.”
“Why was it evidence?”
“Because it documents what happened while you were alone.”
I touched the plastic.
Every page represented a day I had survived.
I suddenly wished I had written more.
Then Deputy Collins said:
“There’s one more thing you should know.”
I looked up.
“We checked the house.”
“Did you find anything?”
“We found something unusual.”
“What?”
He hesitated.
“Your mother’s bedroom.”
“What about it?”
“There was a second phone.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“A phone hidden in a drawer.”
I had never seen it.
“Was it hers?”
“We believe so.”
“What’s on it?”
“We’re still examining it.”
My heart began pounding.
“Could it have my mom’s messages?”
“Possibly.”
“Messages to who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
That night, I couldn’t sleep.
I kept thinking about the second phone.
The secret phone.
The phone my mother had never mentioned.
The phone she had apparently hidden before leaving for vacation.
And then I remembered something.
Three days before she left, Mom had been in her bedroom with the door locked.
I had heard her arguing with someone.
I couldn’t hear the entire conversation.
But I remembered one sentence.
“You promised me this would stay quiet until after the wedding.”
At the time, I thought she was talking about wedding decorations.
Now I wasn’t so sure.
The next morning, Elena came to see me again.
She wasn’t alone.
Derek was with her.
He looked completely different from the man who had smiled at me in the driveway.
His face was pale.
He sat across from me and placed both hands on the table.
“Maya, I owe you an apology.”
I stared at him.
“For what?”
“For believing your mother.”
I didn’t answer.
He swallowed.
“She told me you were staying somewhere safe.”
“You believed her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she showed me a message.”
“What message?”
“She sent me a photograph.”
“Of Chloe’s house?”
He nodded.
But then he said:
“It wasn’t a recent photograph.”
My stomach dropped.
“What do you mean?”
“She sent me a picture of you standing beside the lake.”
I stared at him.
“I’ve never been there.”
“I know.”
“Who was in the picture?”
He looked at Elena.
Then back at me.
“We’re not sure.”
“What does that mean?”
Derek opened his phone.
He showed me the photograph.
It was me.
Standing beside a lake.
Wearing a blue sweater.
Smiling.
But I had never seen that photograph before.
I stared at my own face.
Then I noticed something.
Behind me was a wooden cabin.
And on the porch stood a woman.
A woman I had never met.
Derek zoomed in.
My blood went cold.
Because the woman was holding a little girl.
And that little girl looked exactly like me.
Same dark hair.
Same face.
Same age.
Same blue sweater.
I whispered:
“Who is she?”
Derek didn’t answer.
Then Elena quietly said:
“We don’t know yet.”
Derek looked at me.
“But your mother does.”
And for the first time since she left for Hawaii, I realized something terrifying.
Maybe my mother hadn’t abandoned me because she wanted a vacation.
Maybe she had left because she was running away from something.
And whatever it was…
It had already been waiting for me.
