I looked at Officer Ruiz.
Megan stopped twisting the tea bottle.
Mr. Hall asked whether I could come back to the store.
I said yes.
Officer Ruiz came with us.
Lily was exhausted, but she refused to stay at Mom’s house without me.
Megan suddenly insisted there was no reason for all of us to return to Oakridge.
She said Lily needed rest.
She said we could deal with the recordings another day.
That was the first thing Megan said all evening that sounded genuinely urgent.
I buckled Lily into the car.
Mom stood in the doorway with her arms folded tightly across her chest.
She did not tell Megan to stop me.
She did not tell me she believed Lily either.
She just said we were turning her birthday into a disaster.
I looked at my daughter in the back seat.
Her eyes were swollen from crying, and she was wearing only one shoe.
