Page 104 of Culinary Chaos

“The what?” one of them said.

“The lost child policy,” Angelica reiterated. “When you have a child who’s lost, what do you do?”

They both shook their heads at her in confusion.

“Shit.” She stared at the door. “You go stand by the front door and don’t let anyone out that has a child with them. You.” She pointed at the other one. “Get someone from custodial to lock all the other doors and station someone at them.”

When they didn’t immediately move, she clapped her hands at them. “Now!”

“Yes, Ms. Shields.” They both went to work, and Angelica spun back around to talk with Hope for a brief second. She’d deal with the training and policy issues tomorrow. Right now, she had to find Eva. Because if she had to go in there andtell Hope that Eva wasn’t in the building, she might just break herself.

The absolute fear she’d seen in Hope’s eyes when she’d stepped off that elevator… Angelica shivered at it. She couldn’t witness that again. She checked in with Hope and immediately started sending texts to the crew. They would at least all know what Eva looked like, and she was familiar with them, so hopefully, she wouldn’t be scared of them.

She walked directly to the elevator as she started assigning people different floors to check and started running through exactly what needed to happen. She walked into the makeshift office and ripped off her wet jacket, throwing it onto the table with a loudthwapas it landed. She lifted her phone and was just about to call the police when she stopped.

There was a sniffle.

Angelica stilled, holding her phone away from her ear as she listened again to make sure that she’d heard it correctly. She stood completely still, her heart hammering so loud that it obstructed her ability to listen clearly.

There it was again.

“Eva?” Angelica asked, keeping her voice as gentle and as calm as possible.

She furrowed her brow and looked around the room, finding no one there. Her phone buzzed wildly in her hand as people responded to the texts she’d sent. The office was so quiet, but there was that damn sniffle again.

“Eva,” Angelica said a little more firmly. “Are you in here?”

Angelica walked around the table toward the desk and then stopped. Underneath the large conference table, she caught sight of a bare foot. She pursed her lips and sent a text, telling everyone to stand down that she’d found Eva. Then she texted Hope and told her to meet them upstairs in a few minutes.

Squatting down, Angelica looked under the table. Eva was curled up with her knees pulled to her chest and arms around her knees, her head buried. She sniffled again. Instead of asking Eva to come out, Angelica got onto her ass and scooted under the table to sit next to Eva, having to slouch slightly so she didn’t hit her head.

“Everyone’s looking for you,” Angelica said.

Eva didn’t answer.

“Your mom’s really scared.”

“No, she’s not,” Eva said, firmly.

Angelica pressed her lips together hard. “Want to tell me what happened?”

The silence was loud, but Angelica could be incredibly patient, especially when it came to children. She’d always had a heart for them, and Eva was no different. And this was Hope’s daughter, one of the kids on the set that Angelica had interacted with the most.

“We can stay here for a little longer if you want, but eventually, I’m going to have to let your parents know where you are.”

Eva sighed, and she raised her head. Her big blue eyes were full of tears, her cheeks red from crying. She brushed her hands over her face and stared directly at Angelica. “I don’t want them to get a divorce.”

Angelica’s heart snapped in two. Now she knew exactly what had happened because she’d been Eva so many times. But she didn’t know what to tell her, because she wished her parents had just divorced. It would have ended the arguing, it would have put her in a calm, stable home, and it would have been for the best. But she couldn’t judge Hope and Rex’s marriage on the little she knew about it.

“Were they arguing?” Angelica asked, trying as much as possible not to fish for details.

Eva sniffled again, a large tear streaking down her face like a beacon of her sadness. “Yeah, about work.”

Angelica had one guess what that was all about, and it was the same reason she’d walked out of the hotel and into the rain. Speaking of which, now that Eva was found and the scare calmed slightly, she couldn’t help but feel chilled and soggy.

“Adults argue.” Angelica crossed her legs in a crisscross-applesauce position and leaned over on her knees. “That’s normal. Sometimes we have to argue just to get our feelings out.”

“Yeah, but this one was bad.”