Chapter 1 - THE CALL AT 2:17
Laura Carter grabbed the ringing phone before it could wake her daughter.
“Hello?”
Her father’s voice came through before she could leave Mia’s bedside. “One late payment and your room is gone. You should’ve planned better.”
Laura stared at the monitor above the hospital bed. Mia’s heart rate flickered in soft green lines. An IV disappeared beneath gauze on her bruised arm.
“I’m eleven days late,” Laura whispered. “She’s been in intensive care.”
“That doesn’t change the agreement.”
A second voice drifted through the speaker. Her mother sounded farther away, as if she were standing across the kitchen.
“Brianna’s lease ended. She needs the basement.”
Laura stood so quickly that the coffee on the bedside tray tipped against its lid.
“What are you saying?”
“We cleared it out,” Robert replied. “Whatever sold, sold. The rest was donated.”
Mia shifted under the thin hospital blanket. Her eyes opened halfway.
“Mom?”
Laura lowered the phone, but Robert continued speaking.
“You can collect any mail that comes here. You just can’t live here anymore.”
Mia reached toward her. Laura wrapped both hands around her daughter’s fingers.
“Did Grandma keep Clover?” Mia asked weakly.
Clover was the stuffed rabbit Mia had slept with since preschool.
Laura pressed the phone against her chest. “I’ll find out, baby.”
Her father heard her.
“We’re done discussing this,” he said.
The call ended.
Laura remained beside the bed, trying to breathe without letting Mia see how much each breath hurt.
A nurse named Kayla entered, checked Mia’s IV, and glanced at the dark phone screen.
“Your parents again?”
Laura looked up. “Again?”
Kayla hesitated. “A man who identified himself as Mia’s grandfather called the nurses’ station yesterday. He wanted to know what paperwork he’d need to take her home when she’s discharged.”
Laura’s fingers tightened around Mia’s hand.
“He told us you’d moved out,” Kayla added carefully. “He said he and your mother were preparing a room for Mia.”
The rent had not been overdue yesterday.
Laura turned toward her sleeping daughter.
May you like
Her parents had not taken the basement because she missed a payment.
They had been waiting for a reason to remove her.
