Chapter SIX #3
Mei saw it through the bus window and dropped so quickly into the seat that the boy behind her said, "What the heck?" Tiana leaned over. "Is it there?"
Mei nodded.
The bus pulled into the school loop. By the time Tiana looked through the rear window, the car was moving away. Principal Monroe took the report seriously. Security reviewed cameras. The license plate was partially visible, but not clearly enough to identify the owner immediately.
"Do you want to go home?" the school counselor asked.
Mei surprised herself by saying no.
"If I go home every time I'm scared, I'm never going to be anywhere else."
Tiana, sitting beside her, whispered, "That was deep."
Mei elbowed her.
At lunch, a seventh grader named Caleb approached their table holding his phone. "Is this your dad?"
The screen showed a public post from Daniel's social-media account.
It used an old school picture of Mei and said she had been removed from his home by relatives while she was emotionally confused.
It asked friends and family to "pray for reunification" and not to believe "harmful accusations being spread during a custody dispute."
Mei felt heat rush into her face. Tiana reached for the phone. "Why are you showing her that?" Caleb stepped back. "I just saw it."
"Then keep seeing it somewhere else."
Mei pulled Tiana's sleeve. "Stop."
But she had already read enough. Emotionally confused.
Custody dispute. Not murder. Not fear. Not a mug thrown hard enough to shatter against a wall.
By last period the post had spread through school.
Some kids were kind in the clumsy way twelveyear-olds were kind.
Others stared. One girl told Mei her uncle said "families lie during court stuff." Mei wanted to disappear.
Instead she went to the restroom, locked herself in a stall, and called Grandma.
"I want to come home now."
"I'm on my way."
No lecture. No questions.
When Mei emerged from the restroom, Tiana was waiting by the sinks.
"You did not have to follow me."
"Correct. I chose to."
Mei washed her hands even though they were already clean. "What if people believe him?" Tiana leaned against the counter. "Some people believe the first thing they see online. Those people also believe celebrities are secretly lizards, so maybe don't build your life around them."
Mei laughed despite herself.
Then Tiana became serious. "The people who matter are going to look at evidence."
"You sound like Ruiz."
"I contain multitudes."
Grandma picked Mei up ten minutes later. On the drive home, Lillian's phone rang through the car speakers. Detective Ruiz.
"We identified the blue sedan," she said.
Mei sat up.
"Is it my dad?"
"No. It belongs to a private investigator."
Grandma's hands tightened on the wheel. "Hired by whom?"
"We are working on that. The investigator says he was contracted by an attorney to document where Mei was staying and whether she appeared safe. He claims it is related to the custody matter."
"Daniel's attorney?"
"He would not identify the client over the phone. We are sending the information to your lawyer."
Mei stared through the windshield.
A private investigator was somehow worse than Daniel himself. It meant being watched could be legal enough to wear a business card.
"Can he follow me to school?"
"There are limits," Ruiz said. "Your grandmother's attorney can address the family-court side. From the criminal-investigation side, we want to know whether the surveillance connects to any threats."
After the call, Grandma muttered something in Mandarin that Mei only partly understood but was fairly sure should not be repeated at school. At home, an envelope waited inside the mailbox.
No stamp.
No return address. Grandma saw it before Mei touched it.
"Leave it." She called Ruiz again. An officer opened the envelope while wearing gloves.
Inside was a printed photograph of Mei and Tiana walking away from school two days earlier.
Across the bottom, someone had written in black marker: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE STARTING.
Tiana's mother was called. The school was notified.
The photograph went into an evidence bag.
Mei sat at Grandma's kitchen table and stared at the empty place where it had been.
"That's him," she said.
Ruiz did not agree or disagree. "It may be. We are going to test the paper and envelope and check nearby cameras."
"Who else would do it?"
"Sometimes the person you expect is the person who did it. Sometimes someone acts on that person's behalf. Sometimes a threat is designed to make you assume a specific person. I don't want you carrying guesses as facts."
Mei understood the logic. Emotion did not care. That night Daniel called from another blocked number.
Mei did not answer.
A voicemail appeared. For the first ten seconds there was only breathing.
Then Daniel said quietly, "You should come home before strangers turn this into something it isn't."
The message ended. Grandma forwarded it to Ruiz.
Mei blocked the number. At 11:16 another call came from Private Caller.
She turned off the phone, but the silence afterward was not peaceful.
It felt like someone waiting on the other side of a wall.