Chapter 6 - Stepmother’s Desperate Excuses Crumble
Inside the pitch-black room, a small, terrified figure huddled in the far corner beneath a heavy woolen blanket.
“Noah?” the father whispered, his voice cracking instantly as the fierce anger melted into heartbreaking paternal agony.
The little boy under the blanket flinched violently at the sound, pulling himself into an even tighter ball of misery.
The father dropped to his knees, crawling across the bare wooden floorboards toward the corner where his son hid.
He pulled the blanket back gently, revealing Noah’s pale, tear-stained face and the dark bruises marring his arms.
“Daddy...?” Noah whimpered, blinking against the harsh hallway light flooding into the windowless, oppressive cell.
The father scooped his son into his arms, burying his face in the boy's messy hair as silent, burning tears fell.
“I’ve got you, son; you’re safe now, Daddy is right here,” the father choked out, rocking him back and forth.
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Behind them in the doorway, the stepmother leaned against the frame, trembling like a leaf in an autumn gale.
“He was... he was misbehaving! He wouldn't listen to my rules!” she stammered defensively, digging her own grave deeper.
