Chapter 2 - The Hospital and The Evidence
I rode with Sophie to the hospital.
The office was preparing to close, but after I explained what had happened, they told me to bring her in right away.
I took pictures first.
Every gap.
Every swollen area.
Every place Sophie said was hurting.
Then I texted Mark.
“CALL ME NOW.”
He called before I’d even finished putting Emma’s shoes on.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your mother pulled out Emma’s teeth.”
Correction: My father and sister were involved, not Mark.
I explained the situation to the dentist while holding Sophie’s hand.
Two of the missing teeth had been ready to fall out.
The others had not.
One spot was severely irritated.
The dentist looked at me.
“How were these removed?”
“Her grandmother did it.”
He stopped writing.
Emma squeezed my hand.
Then she looked toward the dentist.
“Will the new ones grow straight?”
He smiled softly.
“They’ll grow however they’re supposed to grow.”
Emma frowned.
“Grandma said she was fixing them.”
The dentist glanced at me.
I looked away before Emma could see my expression.
During the drive home, she barely spoke.
Then, halfway there, she asked, “Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you mad about the other one?”
“What other one?”
Emma touched her pocket.
“I saved one.”
I pulled into a parking lot.
“What do you mean you saved one?”
She pulled a tissue from her pocket.
Inside was one tiny baby tooth.
“Grandma missed this one,” she whispered.
My chest tightened.
“Missed it?”
“It fell out on its own.”
She looked almost ashamed.
“I hid it before she could take it.”
I stared down at the tiny tooth.
“Why?”
Emma swallowed.
“Because Grandma kept the others.”
I thought I’d heard her wrong.
“She kept them?”
Emma nodded.
“She said she needed them.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she said something that made me immediately reach for my phone.
“She put them in the blue box.”
I’d noticed Diane carrying that box when she left.
I hadn’t given it a second thought.
I called Mark before I even left the parking lot.
“Your mother has Emma’s teeth.”
“What?”
“The teeth she pulled. She took them home.”
There was a long silence.
May you like
Then Mark said, “I’m going over there.”
“We’re going over there.”
