Chapter 3
Ethan led me to the laundry room.
He walked slowly, glancing behind us twice to make sure Julian was not following. One of my guards stayed between the kitchen and the hallway.
Evelyn came with us.
Barely.
She kept one hand against her ribs.
Ethan opened the lowest cabinet beneath the linen shelf and pulled out an old cereal box.
Inside were crackers.
A charger.
A spare key.
And a second phone.
I looked at Evelyn.
She closed her eyes.
Julian shouted from the kitchen.
“Don’t touch that.”
Wrong thing to say.
I picked up the phone.
“Why do you have this?”
Evelyn looked ashamed.
“For emergencies.”
I stared.
“In your own house.”
She nodded.
That answer hurt more than I expected.
“What emergency?”
She looked toward the doorway.
I understood.
Ethan answered anyway.
“When Daddy locks the bedroom.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
Evelyn whispered his name.
He looked at her.
“You told me call Grandpa.”
She closed her eyes.
I crouched beside him.
“She did the right thing.”
Ethan nodded, but he did not look convinced.
That worried me.
I opened the second phone.
No passcode.
Dozens of drafts.
None sent.
Messages addressed to me.
Dad, can you come over?
Dad, I need help.
Dad, please don’t call first.
Dad, I think he knows I have this phone.
I stopped scrolling.
My daughter had written to me over and over.
Then deleted or abandoned every message.
I looked at her.
“Why didn’t you send them?”
Tears filled her eyes.
Julian answered from the hall.
“Because she knew you’d overreact.”
My guard blocked him.
I turned slowly.
Evelyn whispered, “He said you’d start a war.”
I stared at her.
“With who?”
She looked at Julian.
He smiled bitterly.
“With me.”
I almost laughed.
One man.
One kitchen.
One frightened woman.
And Julian had convinced her that calling her father would destroy an organization.
That was not fear of violence.
That was manufactured guilt.
I looked back at the unsent messages.
May you like
There were forty-three.
The oldest was dated eleven months earlier.
