Chapter 3
The house grew dangerously quiet as dusk settled over the neighborhood, painting the kitchen windows in deep shades of indigo and charcoal. Elena had managed to get Leo settled in the guest room at the back of the house, feeding him a few crackers and convincing him to watch a cartoon with the volume turned down low. Maya sat at the kitchen table, the glow of her smartphone illuminating her face in the dark room. She was staring at the screen, her thumb hovering over the dial button for emergency services, yet hesitation paralyzed her.
If she called the police, what would she tell them? David hadn’t struck anyone yet. His threats were veiled, masked in cryptic jargon about protection, destiny, and bloodlines that the dispatcher would likely dismiss as a messy domestic dispute. The system moved slowly, and until a crime was committed, their hands were largely tied.
Footsteps scraped against the hardwood floor down the hall. Maya stiffened, sliding her phone silently into her back pocket.
The door to the master bedroom creaked open. David emerged, but the man walking down the hallway looked different. He had changed into a heavy dark jacket over his beige shirt, and a worn leather duffel bag swung heavily from his right hand. He walked with a chilling, purposeful stride that suggested he had made a final, irrevocable decision.
Elena stepped out of the guest room, blocking his path with a rigid spine. "Where do you think you're going?" she demanded, keeping her voice low so Leo wouldn't hear.
David stopped a few feet away from her. The overhead hallway light cast deep shadows across his face, obscuring his expressions. "I'm going to get answers, Elena. And when I return, this family is going back to how it was supposed to be."
"You're not taking him anywhere," Elena said, her voice trembling but fierce. "If you take one step toward that back room, I swear to God, I will burn this entire life to the ground."
David let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "You think you're protecting him, but you're blind. The tests I ran weren't just medical, Elena. They were baseline diagnostics. He isn't entirely ours."
Maya stepped out of the kitchen, her voice cutting through the gloom like a knife. "You're insane, David. You're projecting your own paranoia onto a seven-year-old child because you can't handle your own failures."
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David turned his cold gaze toward Maya. The malice in his eyes made her breath catch. "You talk a lot for someone who doesn't know half of the secrets hidden in this house. Check the floorboards in the attic crawlspace if you want a history lesson."
Without waiting for a response, David turned, unlocked the front door, and stepped out into the chilly night. The lock clicked home.
