Chapter 2 - The Sound of Laughter
I sprinted to my car while my heart hammered violently against my ribs.
My hands shook as I gripped the leather steering wheel.
I dialed my mother's number before I even started the engine.
Denise answered as though I had merely interrupted her afternoon television show.
"What is it?" she sighed.
"Where is Elliot?" I demanded.
She actually laughed.
It was a light, careless sound that made my blood run entirely cold.
"Oh really?" she chuckled.
"He's at Lost and Found?"
"I didn't even notice!"
Kara's voice floated through the background, light and unbelievably smug.
"My kids never get lost."
Something inside me turned instantly cold and incredibly careful.
"So you just left him there?" I asked.
Denise sighed again as though I were deeply inconveniencing her.
"Relax, you are always so dramatic."
"Park employees deal with lost children all day."
"He is perfectly fine."
She hung up the phone without another word.
For one second, I imagined driving directly to her house and destroying everything she owned.
Instead, I opened the email that Guest Relations had just sent me.
It contained a formal incident report, a timestamp, a case number, and a staff note.
The document explicitly stated that Elliot had been found entirely unattended near the exit.
It listed Denise, Ray, and Kara as the adults responsible for his safety.
I took screenshots of everything.
I forwarded the official email to my personal secure drive.
I knew my parents still believed this was just a petty family argument.
They thought they could call me dramatic, laugh about it, and wait for me to calm down.
They had no idea what an official, timestamped incident report actually meant in the eyes of the law.
My phone vibrated with a new text message from Kara.
"We are going to your apartment right now to collect his things."
"Mom and Dad are filing for emergency custody."
"You are clearly an unfit mother who cannot even watch her own child."
I stared at the screen in pure, blinding disbelief.
They had orchestrated this entire nightmare to build a fake case against me.
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Before I could start driving, my phone rang again with the caller ID showing my own home security system.
Someone had just violently smashed their way through my front door.
