I Called 17 Times for Help

Five years after leaving Ethan, Cassie runs into him at her daughter Daisy's parent-teacher conference. He tells her she has thrown her tantrum long enough and orders her to come home. Cassie walks past him without a word, hiding the thick silver cuff on her left wrist.

Back at The Little Elephant Library, Luna shows her a third termination notice from a preschool funded by CasStart Academy, the company Ethan founded. Ethan has Mr. Vance digging into Daisy's birth certificate, which lists no biological father. Cassie keeps the cuff on, calling it her lucky charm, and reads Daisy a worn picture book whose back cover hides a line of fountain pen ink.

Cassie once designed CasStart's curriculum while Ethan handled funding, until he asked her to step back as Creative Director. Now he closes in on the life she built alone.