"Women like me," Maliyah finished quietly. "Damn. I want to hate him so much for the shit he pulled, but I love what he did to turn things around. I really love that they didn't just throw money at a problem. That's precious." 
"I know. It was more than I would have thought they'd do."
"Babes, they did it because they knew you—saw you. I get things broke with Caden along the way, but his actions now say something about his heart. People do dumb shit, but it's what they do on the other side, and how they learn from it, that makes the difference."
"I hadn't thought of it that way."
"I think the big question is whether the change will be sustained, or whether you'll be back in the same spot next year."
"He wants to do therapy. Even found a few therapists—but then all this with Macy happened."
"Damn."
"I know. I think he will still—" my voice trailed off as I saw the door opened down the hall. Detective Morrison emerged with his phone pressed to his ear. He caught my eye and held up one finger—almost done.
"MayMay, I gotta go. The detective is coming back."
"Okay. But Felicity? Call or text me tonight, no matter how late. Just to let me know how things are going, okay? 
"I love you, May."
"I love you too. And I'm praying for all of you."
I hung up and walked back to where Caden was sitting. He looked up expectantly.
"Just Maliyah." I explained, settling beside him. "She had some thoughts about Jessica's behavior."
"Like what?"
Before I could answer, Detective Morrison approached us, his expression carefully neutral.
"Mr. and Mrs. Barrett? The Amber Alert is active. We've got Macy's photo and Jessica's information circulating to law enforcement in all neighboring states.
"We've been able to trace more of Jessica's activity. The good news is that she's left a clear digital trail. The concerning news is that she's been taking out more money over the last month or so. We aren't sure of her reasons yes, but it could suggest this may not have been a spontaneous decision."
"So you think she's been planning this?" Caden said, his voice hollow.
"It's too hard to make a judgment right now with what we have, but preliminarily I think it's a good guess. We've also discovered she requested cash advances on a few credit cards. Then she took out almost twenty thousand dollars in cash a couple days ago from one of the accounts we traced back to her. "
"What the fuck. Are you serious?"
"That's what we know so far," he said, "Any reason why your ex would be acting this erratically?"
"Honestly, I really don't know. She's my ex. What about Brad? Doesn't he have anything to say about all this? How did we end up here!?" At that, Caden's head fell into his hands. I reached over and started to rub his back. Everything felt so out of control. Did we miss signs over the years? How could Brad not have seen this in his own wife? 
I looked up at Morrison. "People notice an eleven-year-old, right?" I asked. "Hotels, restaurants, gas stations?"
"Normally, I'd say yes. The issue is that Jessica is her mom. And we don't know what Macy knows—so she may be acting completely normal. Jessica's car is on the alert and we have banners going across the highways with the description of her car on the Amber alert."