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“He’s always working, or tired, or hungry. Mommy said that’s how most dads are.”
Kandice allows a smile to form along her lips. “I think all families are a little bit different, but sometimes it’s hard to know who does the most work, right?”
“Yeah, they fight about that a lot,” Madden says.
“That must be so difficult for you to watch,” Kandice says with a wide-eyed gaze. “Have you had a lot of babysitters or nannies?”
“No, Haley is the first babysitter we’ve had since Fallon was born. I don’t really remember the others.”
I could swear we had a different conversation. I was under the impression that I was replacing a nanny who didn’t work out.
“Oh, okay. That must have been a fun treat,” Kandice says with a real smile.
“Yeah, we had fun with Haley. We watched a new mermaid movie and had popcorn, but then Blakely and I got in trouble for playing hide-and-seek, so Haley made us go to bed.”
I almost forgot about the hide-and-seek debacle. No one looks at me when she says this but I’m wondering what they’re thinking about me and if I was the one who came up with the rule of not playing hide-and-seek. I can only take a guess at why Corbin had made that rule, but it certainly had nothing to do with me.
Kandice tilts her head to the side and exaggerates a pout. “Oh no, why is hide-and-seek not allowed?”
Madden stares at Kandice as if she should know the answer to her question. “Mommy and Daddy think I hid Fallon but then forgot to find her.”
“Is that what happened?” Kandice responds, her eyebrows furrowing.
“I don’t know.”
“Was your sister, Blakely, playing with you when you and Fallon were playing hide-and-seek?”
“No,” Madden says simply without a change in expression.
“Did you teach Fallon how to play hide-and-seek?” Kandice asks.
Madden straightens her shoulders and presses her hands into the chair next to her legs. “No.”
“But your mommy and daddy think you did?”
“I don’t understand,” Madden replies.
There are so many different questions I would like to ask her right now because I don’t think Kandice is getting very far or will get anywhere by the way she’s tiptoeing around the subject. “What about the mermaids? Did Fallon like mermaids, too?” I ask, interrupting Kandice. If the intent is to garner information to protect Madden and they asked me to be here, there’s no sense in keeping my mouth shut.
“Not as much as I do, but I told her the mermaids live in the ocean behind our house. I asked her if she wanted to play hide-and-seek with them like I do. But she’s a baby so she didn’t reply.”
“Were you talking to Fallon about the mermaids when you were down by the water?”
Madden stares down at the table and furrows her thin blonde brows. “Yes…I mean—I’m not supposed to—” Madden looks upat me, clamps her teeth and her lips pull back into a look of guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?” Kandice asks Madden, looking at her and then me.
I’m not sure why Madden is stumbling over her words, but Kandice must think I know.
“I—I don’t know. This is all scary and confusing. I don’t understand what happened or why I’m here.”
I place my palm down on the table and stare at Madden. “It’s okay,” I tell her, hoping my calm tone will release some of her tension.
“Did you talk to Fallon about finding a mermaid in the ocean that day?” Kandice asks, continuing her questions before Madden can reset her thoughts.
“Yes, but I’m not sure if she ever saw one. I would be jealous if she did though.”
Jared taps the cap of his pen on the table a few times and Jillian, the social worker, is scribbling notes down, her pen scratching along the paper. “My God. If this baby is not in the ocean, we’re sitting on borrowed time. We need to get to the bottom of this,” he mutters.
