Chapter 11 - THE GIRL WHO SAID POPPY HOUSE SENT HER BACK
Six months after Poppy House opened, a fourteen-year-old girl walked through our front doors carrying everything she owned inside a grocery bag.
Her name was Maya Torres.
She had a split lip.
A bruise beneath her left eye.
And a Poppy House discharge form in her hand.
Lily found her sitting beneath the yellow chair display at seven twelve in the morning.
“You’re Dr. Romano?”
“Yes.”
Maya placed the paper on the desk.
“You sent me back.”
Lily frowned.
“Back where?”
“To my uncle.”
Lily read the form.
Poppy House letterhead.
Correct address.
Correct state license number.
Correct formatting.
At the bottom was Lily’s signature.
RETURN TO FAMILY PLACEMENT APPROVED.
Lily stared at it.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Maya laughed without humor.
“That’s what everybody says.”
“When were you here?”
“February.”
Poppy House had not opened until April.
Lily looked up.
“You were never a patient here.”
Maya’s expression changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
“Then where was I?”
That was the first question.
The second came twenty minutes later when Lily searched the state placement database.
Maya Torres existed.
Her case existed.
Her foster placements existed.
But according to the database, Maya had been transferred to Poppy House four months before Poppy House legally existed.
Someone had been using Lily’s center before Lily had even opened it.
May you like
And Maya was not the only child.
There were seventeen.
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