Chapter 6 - Someone Signed His Name
Mara sent Mercer a preservation notice and requested the examination records. Daniel took Lily to school himself and walked her all the way to her classroom.
At the door, she caught his sleeve.
"You'll come back?"
"Every time."
He told the school Vanessa had no pickup permission and arranged for June to meet Lily after class.
Just after lunch, the counselor, Ms. Ortiz, called.
"Daniel, there's something you should see before the day ends."
He arrived to find an unfamiliar woman seated in the principal's office. She claimed to represent Brookside and carried a pickup authorization with Daniel's name printed at the bottom.
"I'm not here for a fight," the woman said. "I was told the father approved an assessment."
"You were told wrong."
Ms. Ortiz had refused to release Lily because the person wasn't on the approved list. The woman left her paperwork, apologized, and departed without the child. Daniel photographed the forms and asked the school to preserve its entrance-camera footage.
In the parking lot, he called Mara. "They tried to take her out of school."
"I'm requesting an emergency protective order," Mara said. "Don't contact Mercer or Vanessa yourself. Let us document the chain."
That evening, Daniel collected the aquarium tickets and the photograph of Lily grinning beside a stingray tank. Both were timestamped during the hour Mercer claimed to have examined her.
Lily watched him organize the evidence.
"Daddy? Vanessa has a picture of you, too."
"What picture?"
"The one where you look mean. She said if a judge saw it, you couldn't stay with me."
His mouth went dry. "When did she take it?"
"At the picnic. When you stopped me from falling down the steps. She cut the part with the steps off."
May you like
Daniel remembered catching his daughter by the arm that afternoon.
Someone had turned a father's reflex into a threat.
