Page 95 of Finding Mercy

“Mercy Madison. Someone called me and then I couldn’t get through.”

“Come to the office ma’am.”

The door clicks, and we both go in.

There are four police officers in the office.

“What’s going on?” Mercy asks.

“You’re Mercy Madison and you are?” The one officer asks me.

“Dr. Liam Lexington.”

“You’re Ivy’s foster parents, correct?”

“Yes,” I respond as Mercy grabs my arm.

“Would you like to sit down, Miss?” He asks.

“No. I’d like to know what’s going on,” she responds.

He nods, “Ivy was taken from the school playground.”

“Taken?” I ask.

“Can you tell me if you know this woman?”

He shows us both a grainy picture on his cell phone.”

“That’s Ivy’s mother, Linda Reynolds,” I hiss.

“That’s what we thought,” he writes something on a notepad.”

A sob erupts from Mercy's chest. It turns into a gut-wrenching, piercing cry.

I take her in my arms and hold her.

The officer who has done most of the talking says, “We will find her. We know who has her. I’ll be back,” he says. He steps outside.

When he comes back, he says, “I have issued an AMBER alert for Ivy. Also, I’ve gotten an APB on her and the mother.”

Mercy says between sobs, “You have to…Find her…She’s abusive.”

He nods, “We have officers checking her home as well as her last known place of employment. You should both go home, so we know where to find you.”

“Come on, babe. Let’s do what they say.”

I get her into the car and start driving home.

“I need to call the hospital quickly to let them know I’m going to miss the cardiology meeting.”

“You can drop me off and go back to work.”

I shake my head, “No fucking way. I will not leave you in a time like this.”

Thirty-Three

MERCY

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