Exhibit 3

"Mom's been acting weird lately." I noted, sitting on my bed, which was currently occupied by my sister and Graham.

Mom had left about an hour prior. I'd watched as she'd gotten ready, looking rather distracted and slightly irritated as she'd stepped into a Valentino made specifically for her. It fit her body like a glove and she looked absolutely gorgeous in it.

However, when her 'date' arrived, she had looked less than enthusiastic about leaving with him. She had plastered on a clearly fake smile as he'd leaned in to kiss her, her head tilting just in time so that his lips collided with her cheek instead of her lips. He seemed momentarily thrown off, but quickly recuperated and pulled out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. Freesias. Mother hated Freesias.

I took them for her, kissed her goodbye, and then watched as she left with this man who was clearly not suited for her.

She looked miserable.

Well he clearly wasn't the one occupying her content thoughts. I wondered why she continued to accept these date proposals when it was clear she wasn't interested in any of these men. Perhaps she needed some…well I'd rather not think about it…but it would make sense. However, it was quite sad that my mom had given in to sleeping with people who did nothing for her.

It had been three years. Three years since she'd looked happy going out on a date. I just assumed that after her divorce from Stephen she'd given up hope of ever finding someone.

But that desperate phone conversation the night before last was uncharacteristic. There had to be more to her lack of enthusiasm towards the men she was currently 'dating'.

As I sat on my bed with my friend and sister, rubbing my bed spread through my fingers, my sister frowned at me. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know; she just…doesn't seem happy." I shrugged.

Graham perked up and glanced over at me. "What are you saying? Miranda Priestly is unhappy? How is that even possible? Did you see that dress she was wearing when she left? She looked so good. And that man on her arm wasn't so bad either."

I laughed at Graham's external examination of my mother and shook my head. "She always looks good, but clothes don't make a person happy." I sighed, "it was her eyes. She just looked so…sad."

"Well, maybe work is getting to her." Caroline wasn't really paying attention anymore. She could care less if our mother was distraught.

"No, it's not that." I shook my head.

"What do you think it is?" Graham asked, clearly interested in my mother's woes. To him she was a goddess and she could do no wrong. And to hear that she could feel and have emotion was almost beyond his comprehension.

"I'm not sure." I looked up at him and frowned.

"We should go explore!" He suggested.

"What? She'd kill us." Caroline's head shot up from her phone, which she was rapidly texting on.

I thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Well she's at the opera; she won't be home for another three hours or so…" I looked at Graham and shrugged.

"But what if we find something gross…" Caroline crinkled up her nose.

"Oh come on," I grabbed her arm and the three of us raced towards my mother's office. It looked completely untouched. Everything was in order except for a pile of papers on the edge of her desk and her laptop, which was open, but locked. I had no idea what her password was, and I knew I shouldn't try. She would definitely know we'd been snooping.

Graham was careful not to touch anything as he made his way around the room. I examined the desk, slowly opening drawers, and not touching anything unless it looked of interest. As I opened the large drawer directly under the middle of the desk, I found the stack of photos I'd taken. I thumbed quickly through them, realizing the very last one, the one of Andy and Max, was missing. I frowned and turned to my sister.

"There's a picture missing from the pictures I took at the park."

"So?" Caroline brushed past me.

"So…it's the one of Andy and her son." I explained.

"Well…what does that mean? Maybe she threw it away. I thought she hated Andy…especially after Paris." Caroline shrugged, gently moving books on the bookcase that lined the wall behind our mom's desk.

"Mom doesn't hate her." I silently mumbled, thumbing through the pictures one more time before placing them back in the desk.

"How do you know?" Caroline mindlessly asked.

"Because…" I could only think of the night I'd showed her the pictures and how she'd looked contemplative when she'd run across the picture of Andy. "I don't know. I just don't think she hates her."

Caroline shook her head and walked away. "I don't know what we're going to find. There's nothing in here. And she keeps her planner at work."

"Let's go to her bedroom!" Graham announced, clearly excited to get into her closet and thumb through the millions, even billions of dollars worth of clothes.

I laughed. "All right."

We raced off down the stairs to her bedroom. I usually was only in her room when she was in her room, so it was odd to have my mother absent. Graham stood shell shocked on the cusp of her closet. "Well go on." I pushed him, laughing, and he gasped like a girl and stepped in. "Just don't touch anything." I warned and he nearly began shaking. I laughed again, and then moved to where my sister was thumbing through the bedside table drawer.

"Ohh…look what I found." Caroline extracted a pack of cigarettes. "I thought she quit."

"I think she's been smoking since the divorce." I shrugged, having caught my mother on more than one occasion. Caroline moved to take one, but I stopped her. "Don't; she'll know." I took it from her and put it back.

And as I did so, I realized there was a loose photo lying face down in the drawer.

"Cass, she won't notice if I take just-"

"Caroline. There's a picture in there." I pointed, my fingers itching to pick it up, to see if it was the missing picture of Andy and her son.

"What?" Caroline frowned, turning to see the picture I was pointing at. "Well, pick it up."

I did so, but as I turned it over I realized it was an old picture of Caroline and me.

"I told you. She threw it away." Caroline huffed. "I'm going to the kitchen to get some food. You'd better go check on Graham. I think he's lost in mom's scarf drawer." She mumbled as she walked away from me, our dog Patricia, having found us sometime earlier, scampered off behind her, seeming to sense she was headed towards the kitchen.

I sighed and set the picture back in the drawer, closing it silently.

I was convinced that mom had not thrown that picture away, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Rescuing Graham from my mother's massive closet, we headed back to my room, defeated.

~*~

I was awake when my mother returned that night. She smelled of cigarettes and champagne when she peered into my bedroom. It was clear that she had been drinking that evening, but she looked less than cheerful as she glanced in on me. Graham was passed out on my couch, the TV was on, and I was in bed flipping through the latest issue of French Runway, my finger's trailing through Patricia's fur.

I turned to look at my mother and she gave me a weary smile. "Why are you still awake?"

"I don't know." I shrugged, closing my magazine and setting it and my reading glasses on the bedside table.

"Well you should go to bed." She was attempting to sound mean, but it was failing because she was too tired to even add an edge to her voice.

She looked exhausted and a bit distant. I wanted to ask her what was going on, what was on her mind, but I knew she wouldn't comply, so I let it go. I passed it off as she was merely tired and ready to go to bed.

And so I nodded and reached my arms out for her, as I had when I was younger, and she automatically came to me without thinking. She wrapped her arms tightly around me and kissed my cheek. "Goodnight, darling." And while she was near my bed, she grabbed the TV remote and flipped it off. I grinned at her and watched as she left my room.

I fell asleep sometime after that.

~*~

Monday came all too quickly. I was sleepier than usual as I sat through all of my classes. The professors seemed to drawn on about nothing of importance. I was glad that there were not any exams, for if there had been, I wouldn't have remembered a thing. I was thankful when the last class ended and the bell rang, dismissing us from school. I was excited when I stepped through the main doors of the school; a slight wind caught my hair and tousled it. I pulled on my slouchy white hat and glanced around for my sister.

She was nowhere to be seen.

I huffed and crossed my arms, scanning the long line of black town cars, searching for our car. Usually Frank picked us up, but as I looked, I noticed that Roy was here. We had our mother's car.

Just as I exchanged a quick wave with him, my sister caught up to me. She smelled of cigarettes. "Mom's going to kill you if you keep this up."

"She won't kill me if she doesn't find out." Caroline whispered back, greeting Roy with a smile.

"Hello girls," Roy greeted us, opening the back door of our mother's car.

"Hi Roy," we greeted almost simultaneously.

I slid across the seat, pushing some stray magazines over as I went. My mother was constantly surrounded by magazines and newspapers and publications. As I settled into my seat and buckled my seatbelt, I noticed that the car smelled vaguely of cigarettes and my mother's perfume. She had clearly been in the car earlier that day, and she'd clearly been having a bad day.

I reached down, placing my hand on the empty space between my sister and I. Staring out at the passing city, I felt something beneath my hand. It felt like beads, perhaps a necklace. My fingers locked around it and I looked down at the lost piece of jewelry.

It was a bracelet. Clearly cheap, the metallic surface was chipping in places and it looked like it was well worn. Perhaps a faux designer piece, it wasn't completely hideous, but it couldn't have cost more than six dollars.

Where had it come from? My mother most certainly did not wear it, so perhaps it was one of her assistants?

But she would never let her assistant wear this.

I let my fingers rub against the plastic, wondering who it belonged to and why it had been left in the back of my mother's car.

I was glad when my sister didn't notice it, and I quickly pocketed the bracelet.

More evidence that something weird was going on with my mother.

TBC...review s'il vous plait.