“Where did you get this?”

Momma held up the gun in her freshly manicured hands, the pink and white acrylic clicking nervously down the barrel.

“Some man put it in my bag at lunch, told me he’s going to need it later.” My little girl was only five, yet here she was, calmly explaining to her grandmother—as if I weren’t standing right here—that a stranger had put a firearm in her little rainbow backpack.

“Okay, momma, let’s put it down and wait for the police,” I cleared my throat, “Now, please.”

“What did he look like, Maddie?”

I watched my daughter kick her brown booties together and stare blankly at the ceiling, severely beyond patience with momma, who was eyeing me as though she knew something I didn’t.

“Maddie?”

“Please, momma, put the gun on the damn table and sit down!”

“He looked like…daddy!” Maddie pointed her tiny finger at me and I watched momma’s face go stark white.

The three of us traded glances in the loudest silence I’d ever heard.

Then there was a knock on the door.

My mouth parted but momma cut me off too quickly. “Door’s open!”

Maddie hid herself behind my knees, poking her head out from one side, and then moving to the other.

The officer strolled into the kitchen, nodding at momma once before closing the door behind him and fixing his dark brown gaze on me. Something felt off. Cops in my town always worked with a partner.

“Maddie, go up to your room, okay?” I ushered her toward the staircase but she didn’t move.

“That’s him,” she whispered. “That’s the man who gave me the gun.”

My stomach wrung itself at the seriousness of her tone.

“She’s telling you the truth.”

I almost snapped my neck flitting from his strangely familiar face to momma’s. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Darren, there’s no easy way to say this. That man right there is your brother.”

“My what—“

“You heard her, motherfucker.”

“My kid is here. Watch your mouth!”

“You’re speaking to an officer of the law, Darren.” Momma hissed.

Little arms squeezed around my knees, Maddie’s terror palpable in their grip. “Daddy…don’t let him take me. I don’t want a new daddy.”

My jaw locked, teeth gnashing together at the thought. “I won’t, baby girl.”