Chapter 2 - The Shadows of the Past
My blood ran cold as my father’s words hung in the air.
"What did she do?" I demanded, my knuckles white against the kitchen counter.
"She added her name as an authorized emergency contact last month when you were working late and asked her to pick him up," my father whispered, sounding defeated, broken by the monster he had helped create. "She told me this morning that if you wouldn't give her access to Oliver, she would just take him for the weekend to 'force a compromise.' Priscilla... she's not thinking clearly. She’s spiraling."
I hung up without another word. Panic tried to claw its way up my throat, but the mother in me—the fierce, protective instinct that had been asleep for far too long—took complete control.
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I immediately called the school principal, explaining in no uncertain terms that my mother was to be removed from all pick-up forms instantly, and that if she so much as stepped onto school grounds, the police were to be called. By noon, my family lawyer, Victoria Vance, had filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order based on the explicit threats of grandparental abduction and the financial harassment records I had painstakingly compiled.
When the sheriff served my mother with the court order that evening, the illusion shattered entirely. Her control was gone, and with it, her composure.
