Page 13 of Silent Echo

She was momentarily remorseful, realizing she never took the time to call and check in with him during the day anymore. “Yeah. I have to go meet with the clients in person. I’m flying to North Carolina today,” she lied. “Can you pick up Harper? I’m sorry to drop this on you last minute, but they liked my proposal so much that they decided to increase the budget. They want to meet in person first.” The truth was, she had called Patricia and told her she couldn’t take on the work right now, but Eli didn’t know that.

“Shoot. I’ve got a client meeting too. I can ask Madison if that’s okay with you.”

She couldn’t worry about Madison right now. “Yes, that’s fine. Tell her I said thank you.”

“When will you be back?” he asked.

“Not sure. In a day or two. I’ll call you from there.”

“All right. Safe travels. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She pulled into the driveway, ran into the house, and went straight to her laptop.

Then she booked a flight to Orlando.

PART TWO

PENELOPE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Tell me the story again about how a bad mommy took care of me until you saved me and became my new mommy.” Sebastion looks at me with those big blue eyes, and my heart melts.

“I knew I should be your mommy from the first time I met you. Your birth mommy wasn’t a nice mommy. She didn’t have time to play with you and made you go to school when you didn’t feel good. She got tired of you and left you. I was so happy when I was able to rescue you. You were so happy too. Now we play together all the time, and nothing is more important to me than you.”

“And you’ll never leave me, right?”

I push a golden curl from his forehead. “Never.”

“How come I don’t get on the school bus like the other kids on the street?”

I smile at him. “Because you’re lucky. You get to stay home and be homeschooled. You know I used to be a teacher at a school. But I’d much rather stay home and teach you.”

He yawns, and his eyes close. “I love you, Mommy,” he mumbles as he drifts off to sleep, and I lean over to kiss his cheek. I wait a few minutes to make sure he’s asleep before I slip from the room.

When I go downstairs, I see a message on my phone. It’s from Rebecca.

Call me. I’m sorry but Sofi posted a picture from the party. I think the woman you’re hiding from saw it.

My stomach drops, and I call her right away. “What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry, Cathy. Sofi didn’t know and tagged the bookstore with a photo of the kids at Daniel’s birthday party. Sebastion’s birth mother called the store to try and get my information, but fortunately, Edith didn’t give it to her. But then I got a Facebook message from a Charlotte Fleming. It’s from a few days ago. I’m not on Facebook every day, so I just saw it. Her message said that her son was kidnapped. Is Charlotte her name? Sebastion’s mom who lost custody?”

I could kill Sofi. I’ve been so careful. I’ve limited our social circle to a few other homeschool families. I never let anyone take Sebastion’s picture. And in an instant, that moron, Sofi, has undone it all. “Yes, that’s her. I need to think. Don’t answer her message yet. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay. And again, I’m so sorry. I should have briefed Sofi on the situation. I wasn’t thinking with all the hustle and bustle that day.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, even though I’m equally as pissed at her. Why did she have to invite an outsider to the party? “Okay, I’ll call you back shortly.” I run to my bedroom and start packing. There’s no option. We have to leave.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Before

10 Months Earlier

Ipay close attention to the children entrusted to my care. I’ve always known I wanted to be a teacher. From the time I was a little girl and my sister, Nora, and I played school, I had to be the teacher, she the student. Pre-K is the best. They’re so sweet and eager, wide-eyed, innocent, just wanting to love and be loved. The Windsor School is the top preschool in Annapolis and a feeder school to the sought-after Charter Academy. It took me a little while to get used to the mothers. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, far from it, and these women may as well be from Mars.

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