Chapter 3 - Don’t Make Us Go Back
Then came the stories.
Caroline told him Lila was defiant.
Noah was manipulative.
The kids were “testing boundaries.”
Lila refused dinner.
Noah lied about bedtime.
They hid food.
They broke a vase.
They scratched Caroline’s bedroom door.
At first, Daniel corrected the children gently.
Then sternly.
Then with frustration he now hated himself for.
“Lila, Caroline is trying.”
“She’s lying,” Lila whispered once.
Daniel’s patience snapped.
“Don’t say that.”
The look on his daughter’s face after those words should have haunted him sooner.
It haunted him now.
Standing in the backyard, wet leaves under his shoes, his son shaking against his leg.
Don’t make us go back.
Daniel turned back to the children.
“How long were you in there?”
Lila looked at the ground.
Noah whispered, “Since the sun was little.”
Daniel’s stomach twisted.
Late afternoon.
Hours.
“Did you have coats?”
Lila shook her head.
“She said we didn’t deserve them.”
Daniel’s hands curled.
He forced them open.
Not here.
Not in front of them.
He crouched again, keeping his voice steady.
“Listen to me. You are not going back in that house with her. Do you hear me?”
Lila stared at him, searching for the version of her father who had failed her.
“I promise,” he said.
Her face crumpled.
She nodded once.
Daniel pulled out his phone and called Mrs. Alvarez from next door.
Not police first.
Not yet.
The children were freezing.
He needed warmth and a safe adult immediately.
“Maria,” he said when she answered, “I need help. Come to the backyard gate. Bring blankets.”
She heard something in his voice and did not ask questions.
Two minutes later, she came running in slippers with two fleece blankets and her husband behind her.
When she saw the children, she covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel wrapped Lila and Noah tighter.
“Take them to your house. Call 911 from there. Tell them child endangerment and possible assault. I’m staying here.”
Lila grabbed his sleeve.
“No. Don’t go in.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I won’t let her near you.”
“She locks the door.”
“She won’t lock me in.”
“She has the key to Mom’s room.”
Daniel went still.
“What room?”
Lila looked afraid again.
“The basement room. She put Mom’s things there. She said if we told you, she’d throw them away.”
That was when the story became bigger than the doghouse.
Mrs. Alvarez knelt.
“Come with me, honey. Your dad knows now.”
Lila did not move until Daniel nodded.
“I know now,” he said.
Those three words were not enough.
They were all he had.
When the children were through the gate, Daniel turned toward the house.
May you like
The upstairs curtain shifted again.
Caroline was still watching.
