At 12:03 on Thursday, my phone rang while I was answering emails at the kitchen table.
Lily was asleep under a blanket in the living room, the house was quiet, and for one stupid second I almost let the call go to voicemail because I thought it was spam.
Then I saw the school’s number and picked up.
The secretary sounded pleasant, almost casual.
“Hi, Mrs.
Carter.
Your mother-in-law picked Leo up a little after eleven because of a family emergency.
We just wanted to check that everything was okay.”
For a moment, I couldn’t make sense of the words.
Leo was in kindergarten.
Brenda had no reason to pick him up.
And there was no family emergency unless someone had dropped dead in the last ten minutes.
I asked the secretary to repeat herself.
She did, slower this time, and added that Brenda had said she was taking him straight home.
