Chapter 1 - The Call From Miami
“They left me, Mommy.”
That was the first thing my seven-year-old daughter said through a stranger’s phone.
I was standing in my kitchen outside Chicago, rinsing a coffee mug, when the unknown number appeared. I almost let it go to voicemail.
Then I answered.
A woman’s voice said, “Are you Dana Miller? I’m with your daughter. She’s safe, but she’s crying outside my apartment.”
The mug slipped from my hand and cracked in the sink.
“My daughter is supposed to be with my parents,” I said.
“I don’t know anything about that,” the woman answered gently. “She was standing outside my neighbor’s blue door with a pink backpack. She said someone dropped her off.”
My body went cold.
“Put her on.”
There was rustling. A soft sob. Then Ella’s tiny voice.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here,” I said. “I’m right here.”
“They left me,” she cried. “Grandma and Grandpa went to the beach with Paige and Lucas. Aunt Briana said I needed my real dad. I don’t want to be here.”
For one second, the whole kitchen disappeared.
The address belonged to Preston.
My ex-husband.
The man I had kept away from Ella for a reason.
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And my family had taken my child to his doorstep without asking me.
“Listen to me,” I said, forcing my voice steady. “Stay with the lady who called me. Do not leave with anyone else. I’m coming.”
