Chapter 3 - The Five Weeks Grant Had Somehow Missed
The director of Little Oaks answered on the fourth ring.
Grant stepped into the kitchen so Madison wouldn’t hear every word.
“My name is Grant Mercer. Madison Mercer’s father.”
There was a pause.
Then the director said, “Mr. Mercer?”
Something in her voice made his stomach tighten.
“I need to ask about Madison’s attendance.”
Another pause.
“Is Lauren with you?”
Grant looked through the doorway.
Lauren stood in the living room with Claire.
“No.”
The director lowered her voice.
“Madison was withdrawn five weeks ago.”
Grant sat down.
“Withdrawn?”
“Yes.”
“By who?”
“Your wife.”
Grant looked at the calendar hanging beside the refrigerator.
Five weeks.
He worked backward automatically.
A client project in Dallas.
Two late-quarter meetings.
Three mornings when Lauren had texted him photos of Madison supposedly getting ready for school.
One afternoon when Madison had cried because Grant tried to put her Little Oaks backpack in the wash.
Lauren had taken it from him and said she would handle it.
He had forgotten about it ten minutes later.
“When was her last day?” he asked.
The director gave him the date.
Grant remembered that morning.
Madison had refused to put on her shoes.
Lauren had snapped, “Stop making everything difficult.”
Grant had kissed Madison on the forehead and told her to listen to Lauren.
The memory hurt more now.
“Why was she withdrawn?”
The director hesitated.
“Lauren told us your family was changing childcare arrangements.”
“Did she say I agreed?”
“Yes.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“Did I sign anything?”
“No. Only one parent signature was required under your enrollment agreement.”
That part, at least, made procedural sense.
“What about behavioral problems?”
“I’m not comfortable discussing detailed student information by phone without confirming some things first.”
“I understand.”
“But I can tell you this much. Madison was not expelled.”
Grant looked toward Lauren.
“Was she asked to leave?”
“No.”
That answer destroyed the explanation Lauren had started building.
Grant thanked the director and arranged to come in the next morning with identification.
When he returned to the living room, Claire was gone.
Lauren stood alone.
“You let her leave?”
“She left while you were calling.”
Grant held up his phone.
“Madison hasn’t been in preschool for five weeks.”
Lauren crossed her arms.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“She wasn’t doing well there.”
“The director says she wasn’t expelled.”
“I didn’t say she was expelled.”
“You told Madison the school didn’t want her.”
Lauren looked toward the stairs.
“That’s what she thinks I said.”
Grant’s anger started rising again.
He stepped backward instead.
He had already made one terrible decision with his hands that afternoon.
He wasn’t making another.
“Where has she been every day?”
“With me.”
“And Claire?”
“Sometimes.”
“The closet?”
“Not every day.”
Grant stared at her.
Madison had said every day.
Lauren had just changed from denying the closet to arguing about frequency.
“What happens in there?”
“Quiet time.”
“Door closed?”
“Yes.”
“Locked?”
Lauren looked away.
Grant waited.
Finally she said, “Sometimes.”
He picked up the inside knob cover from the coffee table.
“You installed this.”
“She runs out.”
“She’s three.”
“She has to learn boundaries.”
Grant’s voice shook despite his effort to control it.
“You were locking my three-year-old daughter inside a coat closet while telling me she was at preschool.”
Lauren’s face hardened.
“You’re never here.”
There it was.
Not an explanation.
An accusation.
Grant had been expecting denial.
Instead Lauren gave him something closer to resentment.
“You leave before eight,” she said. “You come back at six or seven. Sometimes later. You have no idea what she’s like all day.”
Grant heard the words.
He also heard the part underneath them.
For months, he had treated childcare as something Lauren handled because Lauren had said she could handle it.
He had accepted that arrangement because it made his work life easier.
That did not make what she had done his fault.
But it did explain how five entire weeks could disappear without him noticing.
Grant went upstairs and packed clothes for Madison.
Lauren followed him.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking her somewhere else tonight.”
“This is my house too.”
“I know.”
“You can’t throw me out.”
“I’m not.”
He zipped Madison’s overnight bag.
“I’m leaving.”
That surprised Lauren.
“Where?”
“My brother’s.”
“You’re taking Madison?”
“Yes.”
Lauren stood in the doorway.
Then her anger shifted again.
“Grant, before you go anywhere, we need to talk about what you did to me.”
“We do.”
He faced her.
“And I’ll tell the truth about it.”
Lauren watched him carefully.
Grant picked up Madison’s bag.
“Now you’re going to tell the truth about what you did to her.”
Lauren said nothing.
Grant walked past her.
At the top of the stairs, Madison was waiting with her stuffed rabbit.
She looked at the bag.
“Are we going to school?”
Grant knelt beside her.
“Not tonight.”
She hugged the rabbit.
May you like
Then she asked something that made the last five weeks feel even worse.
“Do I have to come back before you go to work?”
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