บททั้งหมดของ My Daughter and I Left My Fickle Husband: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

I held my daughter, Sadie Halstead, in my arms, feeling completely hollowed out.The security footage kept replaying in my head, frame by frame. I couldn't make it stop.She was only five.She had spent three days and three nights all by herself.I gently pulled back and cupped her face, looking her over carefully.There was a bruise on her left cheekbone from falling off the couch. A scrape on her chin had already scabbed over.I took her hand and pushed up her sleeve. The skin underneath was red and swollen, covered in blisters. Some had already burst and were seeping pale yellow fluid.The tears came before I could stop them."Does it hurt?"Sadie pulled her hand back slightly and shook her head."Not anymore. I put toothpaste on it. It felt cool, so it stopped hurting."She was five years old.She'd been scalded by boiling water, and the only thing she could think to do was put toothpaste on the burn.She didn't know she was supposed to keep the burn under cool running water for tw

Early the next morning, I took the day off and brought Sadie to the hospital.The doctor took one look at the burn on the back of her hand and immediately frowned."This is already infected. Why are you only bringing her in now? Those blisters ruptured at least two days ago. If you'd waited much longer, her whole hand could have become seriously infected."How old is she? Five? A second-degree burn this extensive should have been treated in the emergency room right away."I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.What was I supposed to say?That when it happened, her father had been at a beach resort with another woman?The doctor cleaned the wound with antiseptic and dressed it.Sadie's little face scrunched up from the pain. Tears welled in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.She was only five, yet she didn't even cry when she got shots.It wasn't because she didn't hurt.She'd just gotten too used to enduring everything in silence.So used to it that she no longer

As the cab reached the on-ramp to the freeway leading to the airport, I turned my phone back on.Twenty-seven missed calls.Nineteen from Gavin, six from Celeste, and two from numbers I didn't recognize.I was about to turn it off again when Lauren called."Ms. Marlowe, your husband called the police. He says you took Sadie without his permission.""She's my daughter. How is taking my own child kidnapping?""It isn't. But he may try to stop you at the airport. Don't board your flight yet. Get Sadie somewhere safe first."And there's something else. Ms. Keaton just contacted me. She says Mr. Halstead is pressuring the preschool to change what they say happened."I let out a cold laugh.So that was what had him panicking.He wasn't scrambling to check on Sadie.He was scrambling to make the evidence disappear."Could you take the next exit and turn around?"I gave the driver the address of my best friend, Paige Lennox.Sadie hugged her LEGO dinosaur set and looked up at me."Mommy, aren'

My mind went blank."What do you mean, she's missing?""Someone knocked on the door and said he was with building maintenance and needed to check the gas line. I stepped into the kitchen for a moment, and when I came back out, the door was open, and Sadie was gone.""What about the security footage?""They're pulling it now. Tessa, I'm so sorry. I never thought this would happen.""Don't cry. Call the police."I turned and ran.Gavin hurried after me. "What happened to Sadie?"I shoved him back."Don't touch me.""Is Sadie missing?""That's none of your business.""She's my daughter!""Now you remember?"His face went pale.Celeste came after us too."Tessa, is there anything I can do?"I looked at her.She was clutching her purse so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.Paige had just said someone had posed as a maintenance worker.Very few people knew Sadie and I were staying at Paige's place.Lauren. The cab driver. Gavin.And one other person.Celeste, who had somehow heard a

Gavin was the one who asked for the paternity test.The day the results came back, he sat at the testing center for two full hours.Millie wasn't his daughter.The staff had made it perfectly clear: there was no biological relationship between them.Celeste had lied to both men.She told her ex-husband that Millie was Gavin's daughter.Then she told Gavin that Millie was the poor little girl her ex-husband had left behind.For three years, she'd played on both men's guilt and sympathy, taking money from both of them.The most ironic part was that Gavin had never questioned any of it.He'd rather support a child whose paternity was uncertain than make time to come home and see his own daughter.At our divorce mediation, he pushed the agreement across the table toward me."You can have the home and the savings. I'll transfer a fifteen-percent stake in the company to Sadie."I didn't touch the papers."We'll divide the marital assets according to the law. And I'll recover my share of the