Patricia’s face tightened as Jeremy’s words settled over her.Instead of breaking beneath the weight of his disappointment, something inside her hardened. The shame she had briefly felt was quickly swallowed by anger, defensiveness, and the desperate need to believe that Jeremy was the one manipulating the situation.“I honestly do not understand what the hell is wrong with you,” Patricia said, her voice rising. “But I hope you have not been telling Mia lies about me. I hope you have not been poisoning her mind against her own mother.”Jeremy said nothing.That silence only made Patricia more certain that she was right.“Because from what I am seeing here,” she continued, pointing toward Mia, “it is obvious you have told her things. You have filled her head with disgusting stories about me. You have made her afraid of me.”Her eyes flashed with anger.“But whatever you told her is a lie.”Then Patricia turned toward Mia, her expression softening instantly into something pleading and e

Patricia was utterly devastated.She stood there in shock, unable to process what she had just seen. She knew Jeremy’s threat against her family was nothing more than empty nonsense. He would not be able to do anything to them not truly. She knew that much.But none of that mattered now.Mia was alive.Not only was she alive, but she looked healthy strong, alert, and completely unlike someone who had recently been at death’s door. She did not look sick. She did not look weak. She looked like a child who had been given back her life.And that realization broke Patricia’s heart even more.Jeremy glanced down at Mia and gently squeezed her hand.“Let’s get going,” he said quietly. “Come on, Mia.”Mia nodded at once.Jeremy turned toward the entrance, and the two of them began walking away together. Patricia watched them move farther from her, and before she could think about what she was doing, she hurried forward.“Mia!”She reached for the child’s hand.But the moment Mia realized that

Her voice was weak and broken.Her mother fell silent for a moment.“He didn’t?”“No,” Patricia whispered. “He didn’t hurt me.”“Then what happened?” her mother asked. “Why are you crying like this? What did he do?”Patricia squeezed her eyes shut. The image of Mia appeared once more in her mind—the child’s face, the healthy color in her cheeks, the way she had clung to Jeremy, the way she had pulled her hand away from Patricia’s touch.“You need to see what I saw,” Patricia said.Her mother’s voice became impatient. “What are you talking about?”“Little Mia is alive.”The words came out in a trembling whisper.For several seconds, there was no response.Patricia held the phone against her ear, listening to the silence on the other end. Even through the call, she could feel her mother struggling to understand what she had just heard.Then her mother gave a short, disbelieving laugh.“What do you mean, Little Mia is alive?”Patricia swallowed hard.“Alive,” her mother repeated, as thou

Patricia’s lips trembled.“Then what am I supposed to do?”“Come home.”“I need to find them.”“No,” her mother said immediately. “Do not follow Jeremy. Do not confront him again. Come home first, and we will decide what to do after we have had time to think.”“But if Mia is alive—”“Then we will find out the truth.”Patricia held her breath.Her mother continued, “I am not asking you to forget what you saw. I am asking you to calm down so we can handle it properly. We will do this together, okay?”Patricia did not answer.“If you cannot come home alone,” her mother added, “then I will come and get you myself.”“You will?”“Yes. I know where you are. Just stay there and wait for me. Do not leave the coffee shop, and do not try to go after Jeremy.”Patricia looked toward the entrance.“I don’t know if I can stay here.”“You can. Sit down, drink some water, and wait for me. I will come as soon as possible.”Her mother’s voice had become firm but gentle, the tone she used whenever she be

It was in that trembling moment, with her hands shaking so violently that the phone nearly slipped from her fingers more than once, that Patricia finally worked up the nerve to call Steven, even though some quiet, apprehensive part of her already sensed that this conversation would somehow spiral into something far more chaotic than she was prepared for.The phone rang twice, the sound stretching out endlessly in her ears, and yet Steven did not answer, which only made the anger simmering beneath her fear rise even faster, because she could not understand, and refused to understand, why he would deliberately choose this particular moment, of all moments, to ignore her call when she needed him more than she had ever needed anyone before.With her fingers trembling so badly that she had to steady the phone against her ear with both hands, she called again, and then again, refusing to let the silence swallow her, until finally, after what felt like an agonizing eternity compressed into o