Chapter 10
While the deputies served the papers at her father’s house, Elena sat in her living room, watching Lily play quietly with a set of wooden building blocks on the rug. The tension that had defined the toddler’s movements all morning had begun to dissipate, replaced by the natural focus of a three-year-old engrossed in stacking shapes. Her phone buzzed on the coffee table. Elena picked it up, seeing a text message from Marcus confirming that the protective order had been successfully served. Moments later, her phone rang with an unknown number. She swiped to answer, pressing the device against her ear.
"Elena?" a hesitant, gravelly voice asked from the other end of the line.
Elena froze. The voice belonged to her older brother, David, whom she had not spoken to in over a decade—ever since he fled across the country to escape Arthur’s tyrannical rule.
May you like
"David?" she breathed, her voice catching slightly in her throat.
"I heard about what happened," David said, his tone heavy with suppressed emotion. "Martha called me, panicking about the police. Elena... I'm so sorry I left you behind to deal with him alone all these years. If you need me to testify about what we went through growing up, what he did to us in this very house... I'll catch the first flight back."
