Chapter 5 - The Teacher's Warning
Lily's kindergarten teacher, Ms. Alvarez, met us at school before classes ended. She looked relieved to see me and furious at the same time.
"I've left messages, Mr. Hayes. Emails, too."
"I didn't get them."
She showed me the address Vanessa had provided as my primary contact. It wasn't mine. It had my name in it, but one extra letter changed the entire account.
"Vanessa told us you were traveling," Ms. Alvarez said. "Every reply came from that address."
For six weeks, someone had impersonated me while Lily sat in a classroom twenty minutes from my office.
Ms. Alvarez opened Lily's attendance folder. There were notes about missing lunches, unexplained absences, and a drawing Lily had refused to take home.
The drawing showed four people at a table and one little girl behind a closed door. Above the girl, in crooked block letters, Lily had written BAD GIRLS EAT ALONE.
I couldn't speak.
"Yesterday Lily asked whether a person could be sent away if grown-ups didn't want her," the teacher said. "I made a report that morning."
"To whom?"
"The appropriate child protection hotline. I also called you."
Mara, standing beside me, asked for copies through the proper school process. Park was already seeking relevant records.
Before we left, the principal showed me a transfer request delivered electronically at 7:13 a.m. It carried my forged signature and instructed the school to release Lily's records to an organization called Evergreen Family Center.
"There is no transfer," I said. "No one has my permission."
The principal canceled the request and set a security alert on Lily's file.
Then she pointed to the scheduled pickup date: Monday.
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Attached was a photograph of a man authorized to collect my daughter.
His name was Ricardo Salazar.
