Chapter 3

With the Bloomtide Festival going on, Mom opened the diner an hour earlier than usual.

The moment she unlocked the door, several young people with cameras in hand rushed inside and crowded around her.

"Are you really Joan Thorne, the Thorne family's biological daughter?"

"Your birth parents are both in the hospital. Is it true you won't even acknowledge them unless they give you money?"

"We heard your husband died, and you've been raising your daughter alone while running this little diner. Is that true?"

"Don't you want your daughter to have the kind of life a wealthy family could give her?"

"Just because you had to struggle, are you going to make your daughter struggle too?"

"Do you hate Kayla Thorne so much that you made her kneel there with thorny branches tied across her back and beg you to forgive her?"

Late the night before, Kayla had posted a single sighing emoji on social media and nothing else. She hadn't said a word, but the comments had already gone wild.

By morning, Mom had already been branded online as a woman who wanted money but nothing to do with her birth parents.

The questions came at her one after another, but Mom didn't look rattled. She immediately pulled me behind her so I wouldn't get caught in the middle.

"My name is Joan Newell. What news outlet are you with? Do you have press credentials? Please show them to me."

The group exchanged uneasy glances.

"Please answer our questions first."

The man shoved his phone so close to Mom's face it was practically touching her. She didn't flinch. She just looked him straight in the eye.

One second passed, then two, then three.

The man swallowed and slowly lowered his phone.

"I don't owe you any answers. If you're here to eat, come inside. If not, please leave. I have other customers to take care of."

Mom carried me off to the side and told me not to wander off before going back to work.

The group still wouldn't give up and followed her around, but Mom ignored them completely. They could film her all they wanted as long as they didn't invade the other customers' privacy.

Heavily edited clips of Mom went viral online, and people started slapping all kinds of nasty labels on her.

"So, you're the daughter of that woman trying to make money off her birth family?"

A man tipped my chin up with one finger.

It was the last day of the Bloomtide Festival. I was playing in a little pond with a few of my friends, splashing around and catching fish. Without warning, he grabbed me by the arm and hauled me right out of the water.

I stared at him with wide eyes. He was dressed all in black, with a mask and sunglasses hiding most of his face. Something told me he was bad news.

I didn't say a word. I just flung the water from my little bucket straight into his face. "Put me down! Who are you?"

The man wiped his face. "Pretty bold for a little girl."

He tossed my bucket aside, carried me over to a black car, and got in with me.

"Go get my mom!" I shouted back at my friends, who were still standing there in shock.

The man let out a mocking laugh. He took me to Thorne Manor.

The elderly couple I'd seen before was there, along with the middle-aged man who looked a lot like Mom and the woman who had knelt outside our diner and put on that whole performance.

They all looked startled when they saw me, then immediately looked past me.

Mom wasn't there.

Kayla asked, "Henry, what's going on?"

Henry dropped me onto the floor and crossed his arms. "You've all been way too nice about this. If you want that woman back in the Thorne family, it's easy. Just find her weak spot and use it."

Gordon's expression changed. He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could get a word out, I darted over to a flowerpot.

I grabbed a pebble and threw it at Henry's head. Then I grabbed another. "You kidnapped me! That's against the law! You're in big trouble! I'm calling the police!"

Everyone froze.

Linda Kinsey, the elderly woman, stood up and gave me a gentle look. "You're Eliza, right? I'm your grandmother. We're family. We just wanted to see you. No one here is going to hurt you, so don't be scared, sweetheart."

I lifted my chin and planted my hands on my hips. "I already have a grandma. And if you wanted to see me, why did you have someone grab me and bring me here? You're all grown-ups. Don't you know that's against the law?"

I was only five, and even I knew that!