Chapter 113

“Calm down,” Marcus says as I pace the bedroom, trying not to cry again. “Baby, calm down. It’s okay. Ronnie is fine. She wasn’t lost. Nothing happened to her.”

Ronnie is napping, and she seems perfectly fresh. She cried in the car, but I’m pretty sure it was because I was holding back tears, my body tense, both hands gripping the wheel.

“Yes, she was lost,” I snap. “Just because she was only a few steps from me doesn’t mean she wasn’t lost. It just means I was lucky. What if I’d gone looking for the manager before that woman found her? She could have crawled out from under the shelf and out onto the street. The produce section is next to the automatic doors and the parking lot is right there. And have you seen how fast the cars go even though it’s forbidden?”

I’m short of breath, my words and fears tripping over each other. And I know he’s right—Ronnie is fine, and I’m not the first person to lose sight of a child in a supermarket. But that’s not the point. This i