Chapter 1: The Call from the Kitchen
The afternoon sun was very hot in the yard of my apartment complex in Phoenix, Arizona. I was washing some dirty uniforms in a plastic tub and wiping the sweat from my face. The soapy water was sloshing around when my phone started ringing on the plastic table.
I picked it up without looking, but the voice on the other end made me freeze instantly.
“If your daughter touches food without permission again, I am not responsible for what happens to her,” Miriam said.
My former mother-in-law spoke with a very cold voice, as if she were talking about a dirty napkin and not about my seven-year-old daughter, Hailey.
“Miriam, what are you talking about?” I asked as my hand started shaking. “Where is Hailey right now?”
Before she could answer me, I heard a small, shaking cry through the phone.
“Mommy…” Hailey whispered.
My whole back went cold, and the noises of the neighborhood seemed to disappear.
“My love, where are you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm. “Why do you have that phone?”
“It’s not her phone, Mommy,” she said while crying. “It’s my dad’s phone, and I took it from the kitchen table when they weren’t looking. Right now, I am locked inside the bathroom.”
I dropped my heavy brush back into the bucket, and the soapy water splashed all over the floor.
“Hailey, tell me exactly what happened over there,” I pleaded.
She took a long time to answer because her breathing was very fast and she seemed totally terrified.
“Grandmother burned my fingers, Mommy,” she finally whispered. “She did it because I took a little piece of bread before lunchtime.”
I felt like the whole world was spinning around me.
“What did you just say, Hailey?” I asked, hoping it was a mistake.
“I was just so hungry, Mom,” she sobbed. “I only took a tiny bit of bread, but she told me that greedy girls become thieves. She dragged me into the kitchen, held my hand near the hot pan, and pressed my fingers right against the burning edge.”
I ran to grab my car keys immediately without thinking about anything else.
“Listen to me very carefully, Hailey,” I said. “Do not open that bathroom door for anybody except me or a police officer.”
“But Dad told me not to tell secrets,” she whispered in fear. “He said I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it.”
Something inside my heart broke into pieces at that exact moment.
My ex-husband, Derek, had taken Hailey for the weekend because he always claimed I was spoiling her too much. He always said that his mother’s house had strict rules, good order, and proper values. He thought Miriam was a perfect, god-fearing woman whom everyone respected at church every Sunday.
I called 911 on speakerphone while running down the stairs as fast as I could. I told the police that my little girl was locked in a bathroom with bad burns and that her relatives wouldn’t let her out. Then I drove straight to Miriam’s house in Scottsdale, my hands trembling hard on the steering wheel.
When I arrived, the front of the house looked completely beautiful and peaceful. It had nice green bushes and a pretty little angel statue right by the front door. It looked like the home of a very nice, normal family.
I slammed my car door and walked up the steps, ready for a fight.
Miriam opened the door almost immediately, wearing a clean white apron over her nice dress.
“What a loud scandal you are making in my neighborhood now, Paige,” she said coldly.
I pushed past her shoulder immediately and walked right into the hallway.
“Hailey!” I screamed. “Hailey, I am here!”
My daughter slowly came out of the bathroom, her face very red and swollen from crying. Her little hands were pressed against her chest and wrapped up in a wet towel. When I knelt down and hugged her, she let out a soft cry from the pain.
I carefully pulled the wet towel away from her hands to see what happened.
Her fingers were bright red, very swollen, and the skin looked shiny and blistered.
“Who did this to you, sweetie?” I asked, holding her close.
Hailey looked toward the kitchen with big, scared eyes.
“My grandmother did it,” she whispered.
Miriam lifted her chin, looking completely proud and unbothered.
“I just taught the child some basic respect,” the old woman said. “In my house, nobody grabs food like a wild animal.”
I pulled out my phone and started recording a video right in front of her face.
