Chapter 3 - HAWTHORN COURT
The next day at school, Emma found Mia by the back steps near the gym, where students slipped out between lunch and last period to eat chips and gossip where teachers wouldn’t hear them.
Mia looked like she hadn’t slept. Her ponytail was loose, and she kept tugging the sleeve of her hoodie over her hand.
“My dad asked like six questions about your mom,” Mia said without preamble. “How old is she, what does she do, how long have you known me. It was bizarre.”
Emma leaned against the brick wall. “My mom won’t tell me anything. She just keeps saying she’s protecting me.”
Mia let out a humorless laugh. “That must be nice. My dad just says I’m ‘too young for context’ whenever he doesn’t want to answer something.”
Emma glanced up. “Does he always act like that?”
Mia took a second to answer. “He acts normal in public. Charming, helpful, everybody-loves-him normal.” She lowered her voice. “At home, he likes to know where I am. All the time. He checks the doorbell camera, the driveway camera, the side gate camera. If I take too long walking the dog, he texts.”
Emma felt a chill along her arms.
“What about your mom?”
“She lives in Denver now.” Mia shrugged, but not casually. “They split three years ago.”
Three years.
The same year as the geofence.
Emma’s mind snagged hard on that detail. “Did you move into that house then?”
“Yeah. Beginning of sophomore year in middle school. Why?”
Emma didn’t answer right away.
Because suddenly the creation date didn’t feel random anymore. It felt like a marker. Like the moment Laura had learned exactly where Mia’s family lived.
That afternoon Emma went home and found Laura in the laundry room, folding towels with mechanical precision.
“Did Mia’s family move to Hawthorn Court three years ago?” Emma asked.
Laura stopped folding.
That was all the answer Emma needed.
“So you do know them.”
Laura set the towel down. “Emma.”
“No. I’m done with ‘Emma’ like that’s a full sentence. Did you put that geofence up when they moved in?”
Laura’s face tightened. “Yes.”
Emma’s pulse kicked. “Why?”
Laura looked at her for a long moment, like she was standing at the edge of something steep.
Then she said the one sentence guaranteed to make everything worse.
“Because if you ever got near that house, I needed to know immediately.”
Emma took a step back.
“Why?”
Laura opened her mouth—then closed it.
Emma stared at her mother, and something cracked.
“Fine,” she said quietly. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll find out myself.”
She walked away before Laura could stop her.
For the first time, Laura called after her with real panic in her voice.
“Emma, don’t go near Hawthorn Court.”
May you like
That should have sounded protective.
Instead, it sounded like a warning from someone who knew exactly what waited there.
