Summary

In Chapter 15, the narrator takes the reader away from Mia's past and back into to the Spring of 1997, where Mrs. Richardson "could not have known" all the details that had been conveyed in the previous two chapters (236). The knowledge that Mrs. Richardson had acquired from Mia's estranged parents was only "the basics of the story" (236). However, Regina and George Wright also gave Mrs. Richardson the business card for Joseph and Madeline Ryan's lawyer, given to them fifteen years earlier in case they ever did see their runaway daughter again (236). Mrs. Richardson called the number on the card and expressed to its recipient that she had "sensitive information" regarding their clients about "a Mia Wright," but when asked what her own name was, Mrs. Richardson abruptly hung up the phone with a pounding heart (238). She considered her options and then called a friend for...