“We think Evan was taken before he ever reached the morgue,” she said. “By someone who worked at the hospital. A nurse related to a woman named Melissa.”
The name made my stomach twist.
“He said he was with a lady,” I said. “He didn’t want me to call her.”
Harper nodded.
“Melissa lost her own son several years before your accident,” she said. “A boy named Jonah. Same age as Evan. She had a documented breakdown.”
“I need to hear from Evan, if you think he can help find her.”
I felt sick.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
“We’re trying to find out,” Harper said. “But first, I need to hear from Evan, if you think he can help find her.”
I went back into the room.
Evan looked up, worried.
“Mommy?”
I climbed onto the bed next to him and took his hand.
“She said not to tell. She said they’d take me away.”
“Baby, this is Detective Harper,” I said. “She wants to ask about the lady you stayed with. Is that okay?”
He hesitated.
“She said not to tell,” he whispered. “She said they’d take me away.”
“They’re not taking you away,” I said. “I promise. I’m right here.”
He nodded, eyes shiny.
Harper sat in the chair.
“Hi, Evan,” she said softly. “Can you tell me the lady’s name?”
“When I woke up, Melissa was there. She said you’d left.”
“Melissa,” he said after a second. “She said I was her son. She called me Jonah when she was happy. When she was mad, she called me Evan.”
“How long were you with her?” Harper asked.
He frowned. “Since the beep room,” he said. “The room where the machines beeped. You were crying. Then I went to sleep. When I woke up, Melissa was there. She said you’d left.”
His fingers dug into my hand.
“I would never leave you,” I said fiercely. “She lied to you.”
He sniffed.
“Do you know who brought you here tonight?” Harper asked.
“I told her you didn’t,” he whispered. “She said it was my brother who’d gone to the angels, and I had to stay with her.”
My eyes burned.
“Do you know who brought you here tonight?” Harper asked.
“A man,” Evan said. “He lived with us. He yelled a lot. He said what she did was wrong. He put me in the car and said, ‘We’re going to your real mom now.'”
“Do you know his name?” she asked.
“Uncle Matt,” Evan said. “But she called him ‘idiot’ more.”
“Am I in trouble?” he asked. “For going with her?”
Harper’s mouth tightened.
“We’ll find them,” she said. “Both of them.”
Evan looked up at me, panic flickering again.
“Am I in trouble?” he asked. “For going with her?”
I pulled him into my arms.
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Grown-ups did.”
Child Protective Services wanted to place him in foster care “pending investigation.”
He sagged against me like he’d been holding up the sky by himself.
Child Protective Services wanted to place him in foster care “pending investigation.”
I lost it.
“You already lost him,” I said, shaking. “The system lost him. You are not taking him from me again.”
Detective Harper backed me up.
“She’s his biological mother and a victim,” she said flatly. “Supervised reunification is fine, but he goes home with her.”
They relented.
“Is Daddy here?” he asked quietly.
That night, I buckled Evan into the dusty old booster seat I’d never been able to throw out.
He looked around the car.
“Is Daddy here?” he asked quietly.
I swallowed.
“Daddy’s with the angels,” I said. “He… he got sick after you left. His heart stopped working.”
Evan stared out the window.
“So he thought I was there,” he said.
He walked straight to the shelves and reached up, without looking, to grab his favorite battered blue T-Rex.
My voice shook. “Yeah. I think he did.”
At home, Evan stepped inside slowly.
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