The Little Girl Said, “Sir, My Mom Didn’t Come Home Last Night…”—The CEO Followed Her Into the Snow…

The Search for Grace Chen

James texted his driver to cancel, then gently took Lucy’s hand. It was so small and cold, even through her mittens.

He led her down the sidewalk. She directed him toward Maple Street, which was about eight blocks away,.

As they walked, James asked gentle questions. He tried to piece together what had happened while keeping Lucy’s mind occupied.

“Tell me about your mom, Lucy. What’s her name?”

“Grace. Grace Chen. She works at the hospital. She’s a nurse.”

“She helps people get better when they’re sick or hurt,” Lucy explained.

“That’s a very important job. She must be very caring,” James said.

“She is. She’s the best mommy in the whole world.”

“She reads me stories every night and she makes the best pancakes. She always knows how to make me feel better when I’m sad.”

James felt a lump forming in his throat. “She sounds wonderful. And what about your dad? Is he at home?”

Lucy shook her head. “Daddy died when I was a baby. I don’t remember him.”

“Mommy says he was very brave. He was a firefighter.”

“Of course he was,” James thought. This family had already endured so much, and now the mother was missing.

Life could be unbearably cruel sometimes. They walked in silence for a moment,.

James noticed how Lucy kept glancing at the people they passed. She was still searching every face for her mother.

The hope and fear in her expression was almost too much to witness. “Lucy,” James said gently, “when was the last time you saw your mom?”

“Yesterday morning before school. She kissed me goodbye and said she’d see me after work.”

“She was working the day shift, so she was supposed to be home by dinner. But she never came.”

“And Mrs. Peterson, the neighbor who watched you, she didn’t seem worried?” James asked.

“She said, ‘Grown-ups sometimes have things come up.’ That mommy probably just got busy. But I know mommy wouldn’t forget about me.”

“Something must be wrong,” Lucy insisted. The conviction in her voice spoke to a bond that James found himself envying.

His own childhood had been comfortable but cold. His parents were more interested in their business than their only son.

They turned onto Maple Street. It was a row of older apartment buildings with fire escapes climbing their facades,.

Lucy led him to a building painted a faded yellow with a blue door. “This is it,” she said, her voice smaller now.

She seemed afraid of what they might find, or not find. James held the door as they climbed to the second floor.

Lucy stopped at apartment 2B. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a key on a string around her neck.

“Mommy gave me this for emergencies,” she explained. “She said I should never go into the apartment alone if she’s not home.”

“But this is an emergency, right?” she asked.

“Yes, sweetheart. This is definitely an emergency.”

Lucy unlocked the door and they stepped inside. The apartment was small but tidy.

The furniture was chosen for function rather than style. Yet, there were touches everywhere that spoke of love.

There were drawings on the refrigerator and fresh flowers on the kitchen table. Photographs showed a beautiful Asian woman holding a little girl,.

“Mommy?” Lucy called out, her voice echoing in the empty apartment. “Mommy, are you home?”

Silence followed. The apartment had that particular stillness of a place where no one had been for hours.

Lucy’s face crumpled. “She’s not here. Where is she? Where’s my mommy?”

James knelt and pulled the little girl into a hug as she began to cry. “It’s okay, Lucy. We’re going to find her.”

“I promise,” he said. “But first, let me make some phone calls, all right?”

He stood and called the local hospitals. He explained the situation, describing Grace Chen, a nurse who hadn’t returned home.

The first two hospitals had no record of her. The third, City General, put him on hold for several minutes.

Lucy sat on the couch clutching a stuffed rabbit. She watched James with frightened eyes.

Finally, the administrator came back. “Mr. Crawford, I do have some information.”,

“Grace Chen is one of our nurses. She came in for her shift yesterday but collapsed during her lunch break.”

“She’d been running a high fever and was severely dehydrated. She’s been admitted as a patient.”

“She’s stable now, but she’s been quite ill,” the administrator added. Relief flooded through James.

“Is she conscious? Can she have visitors?”

“She is, though she’s very weak. And yes, visitors are allowed.”

“She’s been quite distressed,” the administrator mentioned. “She keeps asking about her daughter, trying to get out of bed to go home.”

“We’ve had to convince her multiple times that we’ve contacted her emergency contacts.”

“Who are her emergency contacts?” James asked.

“A Mrs. Helen Peterson. We’ve left several messages but haven’t heard back.”

Of course, Mrs. Peterson was at work, just as Lucy had said. Grace Chen had been lying in a hospital bed, sick and worried.

While she was hospitalized, her daughter had spent a night with a neighbor and a day at school terrified.