I had seen both sides of her, the charming girl everyone adored and the frightened one who cried in the laundry room because her boyfriend, Scott, had only grabbed her arm a little too hard. I begged her to leave him, but she begged me not to interfere. Then during our senior year, I called campus security after hearing screaming from her room, but Danielle told everyone I had exaggerated. Scott called me a jealous liar, our friends chose comfort over the truth, and Danielle moved out two days later without saying a word to me.

Now her son was looking at me like I was the only piece of a map he had left. I stepped closer to the bed and asked, “Toby, where is your mother right now?”

His face crumpled in despair. “I do not know.”

Brenda gently explained what they had learned from the police report. Toby had been in the back seat of a rideshare that was hit by a drunk driver, and while the driver was alive, Toby had no phone. In his backpack, the police found a sealed envelope, a change of clothes, and my contact card.

“Was your mother in the car?” I asked softly.

He shook his head and said, “She put me in it.”

“Where were you going, Toby?”

“She told me to go to you.”

The room seemed to tilt beneath my feet as I processed the gravity of the situation. Toby reached for his backpack with his good hand and pulled out a worn envelope. “She said not to open the letter unless I got really scared.”

Brenda looked at me and said, “We have not opened it, as we were waiting for a guardian.”

“I am not his legal guardian,” I stated.

“No, but right now you are the only adult he will talk to,” she replied.

Toby held out the envelope with my name written across the front in the messy handwriting of my former friend. I sat beside his bed and carefully opened it to find a short, rushed note.

Alice, if Toby is with you, it means I finally did what I should have done years ago. I am so sorry I disappeared, and I am so sorry I called you a liar when you were the only one brave enough to tell the truth. Scott found us again, and I thought I could handle it, but I cannot risk Toby anymore because he does not know the full truth. Please do not let him go with Scott, and please call Detective Sam Rodriguez at the number below because he knows part of it. You do not owe me anything, but you once saw me clearly when everyone else only saw what was easy. I am asking you to see my son now. Danielle.

My hands shook so badly that the paper rattled in the quiet room. Toby watched me with intense focus and asked, “Is Mom in trouble?”