Chapter 2
I did not shout at first.
That surprised even me.
The anger inside me was huge, but it was cold.
Steady.
Sharp.
I placed Ava’s phone facedown on the table and turned to Nia.
“Go upstairs with Ava and Caleb.”
Vanessa snapped, “Marcus, don’t be ridiculous.”
I did not look at her.
“Ava, take your sister and brother upstairs.”
Ava nodded quickly.
Caleb looked confused. He was only ten, but even he knew something had shifted in the room.
“Nia?” he whispered.
Nia reached for his hand.
The three of them walked toward the stairs.
Before Nia reached the first step, she turned back.
Her face was pale.
“Dad?”
“I’m here,” I said. “You’re safe.”
Her chin shook.
Then she went upstairs.
Only when I heard Ava’s bedroom door close did I turn to Vanessa.
“What have you done?”
She folded her arms.
“I have done everything for this family while you travel.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She is difficult,” Vanessa said. “You never see it because she performs for you.”
I stared at her.
“Nia is twelve.”
“She’s manipulative.”
“She is a child.”
“She is your child,” Vanessa snapped.
The words landed exactly where she meant them to.
Nia was my daughter from my first marriage.
Ava and Caleb were Vanessa’s.
When we married, Vanessa promised me she loved Nia like her own.
I believed her.
God help me, I believed her.
I stepped closer.
“You punished her because she isn’t yours?”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“I corrected her attitude.”
“With food?”
“She needed discipline.”
“She needed dinner.”
Vanessa looked away.
That small movement told me more than another argument ever could.
I picked up Ava’s phone again.
“I’m sending these to myself.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus, you are overreacting.”
I sent every photo to my email. Then I texted them to my sister Denise, who was a family attorney.
Vanessa watched me like I was betraying her.
The absurdity almost made me laugh.
“You’re going to destroy this family over some plates of food?” she asked.
I looked at the table.
At the warm chicken.
At the bread.
At the chair where Nia had not been allowed to sit.
“No,” I said. “You already did.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Good.
I walked upstairs.
Nia sat on Ava’s bed with her knees pulled to her chest.
Ava had one arm around her.
Caleb stood near the door, crying quietly.
When Nia saw me, she tried to wipe her face.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I crossed the room and knelt in front of her.
“Never apologize for telling the truth.”
“She said you wouldn’t believe me.”
My chest tightened.
“Who said that?”
Nia looked down.
I already knew.
“She said you’d think I was trying to ruin the family,” Nia whispered. “She said if I complained, you’d stop loving me.”
I felt something inside me crack.
I took her hands.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“I will never stop loving you.”
Her face crumpled.
I pulled her into my arms.
She held on like she had been waiting months to breathe.
Ava started crying too.
“I wanted to tell you,” she said. “But Mom said I was being dramatic.”
I reached for her with my other arm.
“You were brave.”
Caleb sobbed harder.
“I didn’t know it was that bad.”
Nia pulled back and looked at him.
“You didn’t do it.”
“But I ate,” he cried. “I ate while you didn’t.”
Nia’s eyes softened.
“You’re my brother.”
That broke all of us.
A knock hit the doorway.
Vanessa stood there.
Her face was stiff.
“This is enough,” she said. “The children need to stop being poisoned against me.”
I stood.
“No. The children need to be protected from you.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You can’t keep them from me.”
May you like
I looked at Nia, then Ava, then Caleb.
“I can tonight.”
