Mia sat in the hospital waiting room with Charlie and Eli. As soon as the operation to repair the damage to Jiao’s throat was finished, the surgeon was supposed to come out and give them an update on her condition.
At the sound of a tinny chime, she started. It was her phone dinging, signaling a text. She pulled it from her purse.
MOM COME HOME RIGHT AWAY. SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED THAT I NEED TO TELL YOU ABOUT.
What little adrenaline Mia had left flared up. What kind of trouble had her son gotten himself in now? She took a deep breath and tried to tell herself it couldn’t be that bad. At least he wasn’t calling her from the police station. Or a hospital. The front of her suit jacket was still stiff with blood from when she had placed her hands on Jiao’s neck, tried to stop the girl from dying.
She must have made a sound because Charlie lifted his head from an old issue of Entertainment Weekly. “What’s wrong?”
She handed over her phone. Charlie read the message and grunted, then handed it back. “Something bad? He’s a teenager. It could mean that he asked a girl out and she said no.”
Eli was looking back and forth between the two of them. She knew he wouldn’t judge her, not after the troubles he had had with Rachel smoking pot. She handed the phone to him.
“Gabe just sent me this.”
Eli read it and then handed back the phone with a quizzical look.
“Things with Gabe have been kind of fraught in the last couple of days,” she explained. “Right now he’s grounded, big-time. Because on Saturday”—part of her still could not believe what she was about to say was true—“I found steroids in his backpack.”
Eli’s eyes widened. “Gabe is using steroids? Those can have some pretty serious side effects.”
Mia bit back on her impulse to snap at him. “Which is why I’m treating it seriously. As you know”—she underlined the word you with her tone of voice—“it’s impossible to police a kid twenty-four/seven.”
Deciding not to say anything more, Mia called Gabe’s phone. But there was no answer.
When it went to voice mail, she said, “Gabe—can you call me back? I need to know more about what’s going on.”
A million possibilities ran through her mind. Had he been expelled? What could be so bad he had to ask her to come home right away? And could it be that something he defined as bad was not nearly so bad after all? Had he gotten in another fight with Eldon? Her breath caught. Was it possible he had hurt Eldon? Mia called Kali, but again got nothing but voice mail. Then she remembered that Kali had had a doctor’s appointment late in the afternoon and that Eldon was going with her. She decided not to leave a message. Kali already had enough on her plate.
A new, even more terrifying thought seized her. Had something happened to Brooke? Was Gabe so young, so panicked, that he would text Mia rather than call 911? She pictured Brooke cart-wheeling down the stairs. Lying unmoving at the bottom. She knew she was assuming the worst, that she was conjuring nightmares from fifteen simple words. Then again, earlier today she had watched a girl try to kill herself with a pen.
Before she hit the speed dial for Rocking Horse Preschool, she relived what had happened. It still confused her. Jiao and Kwong had been talking fast, their words running over each other. The thing was, Mia had thought she heard Jiao say two words she knew. Kenny Zhong.
But she had checked with both Eli and Charlie afterward. They hadn’t heard it. And surely Charlie would have picked up on it.
Kwong/Kenny Zhong—said fast, one could sound like the other. Or Jiao could have said something else entirely.
“What did she say to you?” she had demanded of Kwong after the ambulance had taken Jiao away. “Right before she did it?”
Kwong was trembling. Blood freckled her broad face. She had screamed, “Sorry!” over and over as they scrambled to save Jiao’s life. She was still clutching the bloody pen she had plucked from the girl’s throat.
“She was saying that she was afraid and she did not want to testify. She was saying she should join Dandan.”
“And she did not say anything about Kenny Zhong?”
“Who?” Kwong’s expression didn’t change.
“Kenny Zhong.”
Kwong’s flat eyes met her gaze without wavering. “No. Who is that?”
Mia answered her question with a question. “Then what were you telling her?”
“That there was hope. That life was worth living.” The other woman sighed heavily. “That’s when she pulled the pen from my hand.”
Mia still wasn’t certain she believed her. But the conversation between Kwong and Jiao hadn’t been recorded by the jail because any conversation that involved Jiao’s lawyer was privileged. And she and Charlie hadn’t recorded it because they were trying to keep Jiao safe. They only had Kwong’s word for what had been said in the interview room. And maybe Jiao’s, once she regained consciousness.
Now she pressed the Call button beside the name of the preschool.
“Rocking Horse. This is Sarah.”
“Hey, this is Mia Quinn. I was just wondering if you were there earlier when Gabe picked up Brooke?” She would ask about his demeanor. If he had said anything.
“Actually, he hasn’t yet. He said he was going to be running late today and that he wouldn’t pick her up until close to close.” Sarah added pointedly, “Which is, like, only seventeen minutes from now.”
Rocking Horse charged a dollar a minute for any parent who was later than six. It didn’t matter if traffic was terrible or the car had broken down. The staff had heard all the excuses before. You could still say them, but sooner or later you would also be opening your wallet.
Why had Gabe said he would pick Brooke up late? And why hadn’t he? Stomach churning, Mia called his phone again. And left another message. “I guess I’m going to have to pick up your sister. I’ll be home as soon as I can. Please call me back and let me know what’s going on.” She hesitated and then said in a rush, “I’m really worried, Gabe.”
“Let me go with you,” Charlie said after she pressed the button to disconnect and started to put on her coat. Eli held the back of the collar so she could slip her arms into the sleeves.
“No, that’s okay, Charlie. This is probably something he wants to stay in the family. He already felt like you were taking on too big of a role on Saturday when you talked to him about the steroids. He kept telling me afterward that you’re not his dad.”
Charlie shrugged, seeming unruffled. “Gabe’s right about that, of course. But with Scott dead, your son probably needs a bunch of dads, not none. And if something is really wrong, Mia, you’ll want someone else there.”
She did not want to think about how bad it could be. “How about this?” She looked from Charlie to Eli. “I’ll call one or both of you if I get home and think it’s something I can’t handle. And meanwhile, can you two stay here and let me know what you hear about Jiao?”
“Deal,” Charlie said, and Eli nodded.
She got to Rocking Horse a minute before close. Brooke was the last child there. Saying hello and good-bye to Sarah, buttoning Brooke’s coat, and putting her in her car seat kept a tiny bit of Mia’s anxiety at bay.
But it all came roaring back once she was in the car again, her damp hands sliding on the wheel.