Chapter 2 - The Black Car Stayed Outside
Michael did not take his eyes off the black sedan across the street.
Rain slid down the kitchen window in silver lines, blurring the car’s
windshield until the person behind it was only a dark shape.
The second phone remained against Michael’s ear.
“Helen?”
The man on the line sounded impatient.
“You were supposed to get the children out before Michael came home.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“This is Michael.”
Silence.
Then the call ended.
“Dad?”
Noah stood beside the security monitor, his face wet with tears.
Michael immediately put the phone down.
He still had Lily against his chest. Red sauce covered her cream dress,
and a thin streak remained beside her left eye.
He kissed her hair.
“You’re okay, sweetheart.”
Lily whimpered.
Outside, Helen was no longer standing beside her silver suitcase.
She was walking toward the black sedan.
Michael grabbed his own phone and called 911.
Then he opened the front door.
“Mom!”
Helen stopped.
The sedan’s headlights came on.
“Don’t go near that car.”
Helen turned.
For one strange second, Michael saw two completely different versions of
his mother at once.
The woman who had screamed at his children.
And the frightened sixty-four-year-old widow who used to check every
window twice before going to bed.
“Go inside, Michael.”
“Who’s in that car?”
“Take the children upstairs.”
“You’re not answering me.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
The sedan suddenly pulled away from the curb.
Michael stepped onto the porch.
Helen shouted.
“DON’T FOLLOW IT!”
The car accelerated through the rain and disappeared around the corner.
Michael stared after it.
Then he looked at his mother.
“What have you done?”
Helen’s expression hardened.
“What I should’ve done three days ago.”
“Which was?”
“Get Noah and Lily out of this house.”
Michael almost laughed from disbelief.
“You threw food at a two-year-old.”
Helen flinched.
“I know.”
“You screamed at them.”
“I know.”
“You terrified them.”
“I know.”
“And now you want me to believe that was protection?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised him.
Helen wiped rain from her face.
“There is no excuse for what I did to Lily.”
Michael waited.
“I was scared. I lost control. I hurt her.”
For once, Helen did not defend herself.
Michael’s anger remained.
It simply became more complicated.
Police arrived within minutes.
Officers searched the block while Detective Sarah Collins questioned
Helen inside.
Michael changed Lily’s dress and cleaned her face.
Noah refused to leave his side.
When Michael returned downstairs, Helen sat at the dining table with a
blanket around her shoulders.
The silver suitcase had been brought inside.
Detective Collins placed the second phone in an evidence bag.
“Mrs. Carter says the man at the door is named Victor Hale.”
Michael frowned.
“I’ve never heard that name.”
Helen looked at him.
“You have.”
“No.”
“Not directly.”
She reached toward the suitcase.
An officer stopped her.
Helen nodded.
“There’s an envelope beneath the lining.”
Police removed it.
Inside were photographs.
Michael leaving his office.
Noah’s elementary school.
Lily’s preschool.
Michael’s late wife, Emily.
That photograph was older.
Much older.
Emily stood beside a man Michael did not recognize.
The date printed on the back was eleven years earlier.
Michael felt his stomach tighten.
“Who is he?”
Helen whispered:
“Your brother.”
Michael stared at her.
“I don’t have a brother.”
Helen looked toward the rain-dark window.
“Yes, you do.”
Then the security monitor beeped.
Motion had been detected at the back of the house.
May you like
Everyone turned.
A hooded figure was standing outside the kitchen door.
