Chapter 7 - A Woman Named Paige
Paige Mercer had met me twice. Once at Noah's first birthday, when she handed Lily a coloring book without looking at her. Again at Thanksgiving, when she told me my granddaughter was "high maintenance" and needed strict boundaries.
I'd mistaken certainty for knowledge.
Shah learned that Paige's company had never been licensed to provide the treatment listed in Lily's records. Yet it had billed the account every month for services supposedly performed while Paige was hundreds of miles away.
At the emergency protection hearing, Vanessa's lawyer brought the edited video. My attorney, Carla Lewis, objected to using a shortened clip without context. The judge instructed both sides to preserve every original recording. He continued the children's temporary placement with me while their safety was evaluated.
Ethan sat across the courtroom from me, staring at the floor. Vanessa never once looked toward the children. She only watched the lawyers.
Outside, Ethan said, "Mom, I don't know what to believe anymore."
"Believe what you saw in the kitchen," I told him. "Start there."
He opened his mouth, then shut it again.
That evening Lily asked if she could draw a picture for Grace. I set a photograph of her mother on the desk and found crayons. The drawing showed three figures beside a yellow sun. The smallest had a blue blanket around his shoulders.
"That's Noah," she explained. "He doesn't like the upstairs room."
I remembered the locked closet and the man who came at night. My chest tightened.
"You can tell Tessa about the room when you feel ready," I said, careful not to press her.
Lily turned the picture over. On the back she had drawn a square with a black dot in the center.
"That's where Vanessa says the eye watches," she whispered. "If I do a good job, she gives the man a number."
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The next morning investigators found invoices listing children by numbers instead of names.
Lily's entry was marked READY FOR TRANSFER.
