Chapter 3: The Fallout
The next three hours were a blur. The police took statements from Lila, the waiter, the manager, and several nearby guests. Jax was given a free kid’s meal from the restaurant’s allergy-safe menu, and he ate quietly, still confused by the chaos. Lila tried to explain what had happened, but she could barely get the words out. She was still in shock from seeing Mia on the security footage, from realizing that her best friend had tried to poison her son.
When the police finally left, the manager gave Lila a free gift card for $100 and apologized profusely, but Lila didn’t want it. She just wanted to go home, to crawl into bed, and to pretend that none of this had ever happened. But as she packed up Jax’s things, she noticed a crumpled piece of paper on the floor next to their table. It was a prescription bottle for loratadine, the generic version of Claritin, with Mia’s name on it. Lila picked it up, her hands trembling. Mia had never had allergies before. Why would she have loratadine?
She pulled out her phone and called Mia’s cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a message, asking her to meet her at their favorite coffee shop the next day, then grabbed Jax and drove home. The whole way, Jax sat quietly in his car seat, staring out the window. “Mommy, why was Mommy crying?” he asked, using the wrong pronoun for Mia.
Lila’s throat tightened. “She was just upset, baby,” she said. “It was a misunderstanding.”
But it wasn’t a misunderstanding. It was betrayal.
The next morning, Lila picked up Jax from school and drove straight to the coffee shop. She waited for two hours, but Mia never showed up. She texted her, called her, even stopped by her apartment, but there was no sign of her. The landlord said Mia had moved out the night before, leaving all of her things behind. Lila found a stack of letters on Mia’s kitchen counter, all addressed to her, and a single note scrawled on a napkin: I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you stop me.
Lila opened the first letter, and her heart broke. Mia had been struggling with depression for months, she’d written. She’d lost her job at the public defender’s office after a client accused her of misconduct, and she’d been too ashamed to tell Lila. She’d seen Jax’s birthday as a chance to get back at Lila, to make her feel the way she’d felt when she’d lost everything. She’d bought the peanut butter cake, snuck it into the restaurant, and lied to Lila about it, hoping that Jax would eat it and have an allergic reaction. She’d planned to use the loratadine to treat his symptoms, but she’d never meant to kill him. She’d just wanted to make Lila suffer.
Lila sat on her kitchen floor for hours, reading every letter, crying until her eyes were swollen shut. Jax sat next to her, handing her tissues, not understanding what was happening. “Mommy, are you okay?” he asked, his small hand on her shoulder.
May you like
Lila pulled him into her lap and held him tight. “I’m okay, baby,” she said. “I’m just really sad.”
But she wasn’t just sad. She was angry. Angry that Mia had betrayed her, angry that she’d put Jax’s life at risk, angry that she’d ruined his birthday. She knew she had to report Mia to the police, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d been her best friend for 12 years, and she still loved her, even after everything she’d done.
