A young «mother» left her newborn home alone for three days because she was too busy enjoying her irresponsible lifestyle… But when she returned, the crib was silent.

So she closed the door.

The click of the lock was a sound she would remember for the rest of her life.

At the lake house, she became the girl she had missed.

She laughed too loudly. She danced barefoot on the wooden deck. She let them film her beneath the hanging lights. When someone said, “Maya, you look alive again,” she smiled as if that was exactly what she had come there to prove.

The phone rang the next morning.

 

Mrs. Linda.

Maya stared at the name until the call ended.

A few minutes later, it rang again.

And then again.

One of the girls sitting beside her asked:

“Who keeps calling?”

Maya turned the phone face down.