Chapter 4 – The Stolen Drawing

The leather chair suddenly felt like it was swallowing me whole. “Unfit? How could she possibly prove that?”

Patricia opened the folder. “She brought photographs. Pictures of your house looking messy. Medical records from when Chloe broke her arm on the trampoline last year. And she had an affidavit from someone claiming they saw you drinking heavily while watching the kids.”

“That’s a lie!” I gripped the arms of the chair. “I barely drink at all. Who would sign something like that?”

Patricia looked at me with a rare flicker of pity. “Your sister-in-law. Jennifer.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Jennifer. The cousin I had smiled at during the New Year’s Eve dinner. The woman who had watched Linda slap my child and said nothing. They had been building a trap around me for months, and I had walked right into it with a casserole and a smile.

“I told Linda I wouldn’t take the case,” Patricia continued. “It felt malicious. That’s why I agreed to see you today. But Sarah, if Daniel is in enough debt to sell his son’s summers, Linda will use that debt to force his hand in custody court.”

I left the office with a stack of emergency filing papers and a fire in my chest.

When I got home, the house was empty. My mother was watching the kids. I went into Tyler’s room to gather some clothes in case we needed to go to a hotel.

Under Tyler’s pillow, a piece of paper stuck out.

It was a drawing. Tyler loved to draw things he observed. It was crayon, messy but clear. It showed two stick figures by a big black car. One was a tall man. The other was a woman with blonde hair.

I turned the drawing over. On the back, in Tyler’s wobbly eight-year-old handwriting, it said: Dad kissing Aunt Jennifer at Thanksgiving.

My stomach dropped. Jennifer wasn’t just Daniel’s cousin by marriage. She was the one helping Linda build the custody case. And according to my son’s secret drawing, the betrayal ran much deeper.