I Found My Daughter’s Note in Her Wet Backpack After I Picked Her Up From Her Dad’s — and Realized That Night Wasn’t the First

Chapter 5 — The Note

Later that night, after Maya had finally drifted into an exhausted sleep, a nurse handed me her backpack, still damp from the rain.

And tucked into the small back pocket, folded into a tight, careful square, I found a piece of notebook paper.

It was covered in my daughter’s neat handwriting.

Dates, and short notes beside them.

Tuesday: Wouldn’t let me inside after school.