Chapter 2 - The Doorway
"You were going to take my daughter from me?" I asked.
Ryan held out his hand. "It's not what it looks like."
"Then explain it without telling me I'm crazy."
Diane stood between me and the front door. "That little girl needs a stable home. You're gone all night, and you leave her with us."
"I'm at work. I pay for her food."
"Money doesn't make you a mother."
Lily shuddered against my chest. I shifted her away from the argument and opened my phone's camera. I photographed the stocked cabinet, the open papers, the food scattered under the table. Ryan lunged for my phone. I backed into the counter, and the cake slid from its box. Dark frosting smeared across the white tile.
"Stop filming," he snapped.
"Then stop giving me something to film."
"It's my daughter too. You can't take her."
"There is no custody order, Ryan. Move away from me."
For a second I thought he would grab Lily. His hands lifted, then dropped when she started to cry. Diane followed me onto the porch, shouting that I would regret humiliating her family. I buckled Lily into her car seat with fingers that wouldn't hold still.
A woman watering potted herbs next door called my name. I knew Iris Coleman only as the sitter Diane sometimes hired when Ryan went out. Her hair was pulled into a scarf, and she looked from my face to Lily's dirty shirt.
"Take her somewhere safe," Iris said quietly. "Then call me."
"Why?"
Iris glanced at the Mercers' open doorway. "Because I quit that house for a reason."
I drove straight to urgent care. At a red light, I handed Lily the crackers from my emergency snack bag. She ate like she was afraid the package would disappear.
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My phone buzzed. Ryan had texted a photo of a complaint form reporting child neglect. It was stamped RECEIVED at 9:12 that morning.
Four hours before I'd arrived with the cake, my husband had already accused me of starving our daughter.
