I stopped breathing.
The file name read:
HAYES, EMMA — PARENT DISRUPTION INCIDENT — 2009.
My hands shook so badly I almost knocked the laptop off the table.
Emma had died when Lily was three. A sudden aneurysm, the doctors said. One minute making pancakes, the next on the kitchen floor while Lily screamed and I called 911.
She had never told me she protested outside Brookside.
She had never told me she had a file.
I opened it.
A scanned incident report appeared.
Subject: Emma Hayes.
Concern: Repeated interference with administrative placement recommendations.
Child involved: Not applicable.
I read that line again.
Not applicable.
Emma had not even had a child in the school then.
So why was she there?
I scrolled down.
Attached witness statement.
Attached photographs.
Attached correspondence.
Then one email stopped me cold.
From: E. Hayes
To: District Board
Subject: You are building a machine that will erase children
My wife had written those words.
My Emma.
The woman who danced barefoot in the kitchen. The woman who sang off-key to Lily in the bathtub. The woman who used to squeeze my hand whenever she saw a child sitting alone.
I opened the email.
The first line read:
If anything happens to me, ask why the district keeps a private list of children they call “unplaceable.”
A sound escaped me.
Not a word.
Not a cry.
Something between the two.
Behind me, the floor creaked.
I turned so fast my chair toppled.
Lily stood in the doorway in her pajamas, rubbing one eye.
“Daddy?” she whispered. “Why is Mommy on your computer?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because at that exact moment, a new message appeared on the screen.
No sender.
No subject.
Just one sentence.
EMMA FOUND THE FIRST LIST. LILY IS ON THE SECOND.
THE END OF PART 2