Chapter 6 - The Neighbor Across the StreetThe number did not answer when I called.

I tried twice.

Then I sent a message.

Who is this?

No response.

I stared at the photo until the details burned into me. Lily’s pale face. Tommy bundled against her chest. The reflection of the maple tree in the upstairs window.

That was not the storage room window.

That was our bedroom.

Meaning someone had moved them.

Meaning this had happened more than once.

Rebecca Sloan arrived at the hospital just after 8 p.m. She was small, silver-haired, and dressed in a navy suit that looked like armor. She read the message, looked at the photo, and did not waste time reacting.

“Forward this to Detective Morales,” she said. “Then do not respond again.”

“Someone knows what happened.”

“Yes. And someone may be testing whether you’ll act impulsively.”

I sent the photo to Morales.

Ten minutes later, he replied.

We’ll trace it. Stay put.

Stay put.

Everyone kept telling me to stay put.

But my children had stayed put for days because no one came.

The next morning, before the hearing, Rebecca met me in a courthouse conference room. I had slept for forty minutes in a hospital chair. My suit was wrinkled. My eyes looked like I had aged ten years.

Marissa arrived with Gavin Pierce.

She wore cream.

Of course she did.

Soft cream dress. Pearl earrings. Hair pinned back. No black mascara today, no dramatic tears. She looked fragile enough for strangers to protect.

Behind her came my father.

Daniel Reed did not look at me.

That hurt more than I expected.

Then the courtroom doors opened.

Emergency hearings move quickly. Too quickly for the pain they carry. Rebecca spoke with controlled force, presenting medical summaries, the responding officer’s report, photographs of the room, Lily’s notebook, and confirmation that video evidence had been turned over to law enforcement.

Gavin argued that I was an absentee father who had “discovered an unfortunate situation and immediately weaponized it against a overwhelmed mother.”

Overwhelmed.

I felt the word like poison.

Marissa cried at the perfect time.

My father testified remotely from a side table. He said I had always been intense. He said I traveled too much. He said Marissa had called him sounding exhausted and frightened of my reaction.

Then Rebecca asked him one question.

“Mr. Reed, did you enter your son’s home during his business trip?”

His mouth tightened.

“Yes.”

“Did you hear children crying?”

Gavin stood. “Objection.”

The judge overruled.

My father looked at the table.

“I heard noise.”

“Behind a locked door?”

“I don’t know where it came from.”

Rebecca lifted one sheet of paper.

“Your phone GPS places you inside the home for twenty-seven minutes. During that time, you made one outgoing call to Mrs. Reed. You did not call your son. You did not call emergency services. Correct?”

My father looked smaller.

“Yes.”

“Why not?”

He swallowed.

“Marissa said she had it handled.”

Rebecca’s face did not change.

“And you believed her over the cries of your grandchildren?”

The courtroom went silent.

For the first time, my father looked at me.

There was something in his eyes I had wanted for thirty-five years.

Regret.

It came too late to help the children behind the door.

The judge issued a temporary order before noon.

Full emergency custody to me.

No contact from Marissa pending further review.

Supervised visitation only if recommended by child services.

Marissa’s face changed when the judge said it.

Not sadness.

Rage.

It flashed across her features, naked and vicious, before she covered it with her hands.

But Lily was safe for now.

Tommy was safe for now.

That was all that mattered.

I returned to the hospital and told Lily Mommy could not come near her.

She stared at me for a long time.

“Even if she cries?”

“Even if she cries.”

“Even if Grandma says?”

“Even if Grandma says.”

Her eyes widened.

I felt my pulse slow.

“Grandma?” I asked.

Lily looked down.

I kept my voice gentle.

“Sweetheart, did Grandma come to the house?”

She nodded.

“Which grandma?”

“Mommy’s mommy.”

Marissa’s mother.

Vivian Carrington.

The woman who hosted charity luncheons for neglected children.

The woman who kissed Tommy’s forehead in church.

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