Chapter 2
Two people were standing outside.
One was Laura Torres from Child Protective Services.
The other was a police officer.
Vanessa immediately started crying.
Not quietly.
Not naturally.
She rushed toward them.
“Thank God you’re here.”
I almost couldn’t believe it.
Ten seconds earlier, she had been threatening me.
Now she was trembling like a frightened victim.
“He came home furious,” she said. “The children are terrified.”
Officer Reed looked at me.
“Sir, step back.”
I did.
I wasn’t going to give Vanessa one second of footage she could twist against me.
“My name is Marcus Bennett. I called Ms. Torres back after receiving her call.”
Vanessa pointed at me.
“He took my phone!”
I held it out.
“It contains the recording used in the report.”
Ms. Torres looked between us.
“Where are the children?”
“Here.”
Nia was still beside me.
Caleb and Ava stood together near the sofa.
Ms. Torres’s expression changed when she saw the suitcase.
“Whose is that?”
“Nia’s.”
Vanessa answered quickly.
“She wanted to leave.”
Nia whispered, “No.”
Ms. Torres heard her.
She crouched.
“You’re Nia?”
Nia nodded.
“Can we talk privately?”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“I should be there.”
“No,” Ms. Torres said.
Vanessa stopped.
I took Nia into the kitchen.
Ms. Torres joined us while Officer Reed remained with Vanessa.
I expected Nia to sit beside me.
Instead, she stood near the counter.
Her hands were shaking.
Ms. Torres spoke gently.
“Did your father tell you to pack tonight?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you to leave?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Nia looked toward the doorway.
“My stepmom.”
I felt a pressure behind my eyes.
Ms. Torres continued.
“Why?”
“She said Dad has a real family now.”
I covered my mouth.
I had heard it already.
It still hurt.
“Has she said things like that before?”
Nia nodded.
“When Dad travels.”
My work required overnight trips twice a month.
Sometimes more.
I had always hated leaving.
Now I hated myself for every single one.
“What happens when your dad travels?”
Nia stared at her teddy bear.
“I get different rules.”
“What rules?”
“I eat after everyone else.”
My chest tightened.
“Sometimes.”
“Nia.”
She looked at me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Dad, please.”
The fear in her voice stopped me.
Ms. Torres touched my arm.
“Let her finish.”
I nodded.
Nia continued.
“Sometimes Vanessa locks the pantry.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“She says I steal food.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“I was hungry.”
I turned away because I couldn’t let my anger frighten her.
Ms. Torres asked another question.
“Has Vanessa ever hit you?”
“No.”
I exhaled.
Then Nia added, “But she grabs me.”
“Where?”
“My wrists.”
“Hard?”
Nia nodded.
“Sometimes.”
My hands curled into fists.
I opened them immediately.
Ms. Torres noticed.
“I need to speak with Caleb and Ava separately.”
They were interviewed one at a time.
I sat in the hallway.
Vanessa sat across the room.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally, she whispered, “You’re destroying our family.”
I stared at her.
“Our daughter was standing beside a suitcase believing her father didn’t want her.”
“She isn’t my daughter.”
There it was.
I looked at Vanessa carefully.
“Nia has lived with you for four years.”
“That doesn’t make her mine.”
“No.”
I nodded.
“It just tells me what kind of person you chose to be.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You always put her first.”
“She lost her mother.”
“And I was expected to spend the rest of my life competing with a dead woman.”
My stomach turned.
Nia’s mother, Simone, had died five years earlier after a sudden illness.
For years, I had thought Vanessa understood that loving Simone’s memory did not mean I loved Vanessa less.
Apparently, she had understood nothing.
Caleb came out first.
His eyes were red.
He walked directly to me.
I opened my arms.
He hugged me.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
“For what?”
“I knew.”
My heart sank.
“Knew what?”
“That Mom was making videos.”
He started crying.
“She told me if I told you, you’d get arrested.”
I held him tighter.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I should’ve told.”
“You’re ten.”
I pulled back.
“You were never supposed to protect me from adults.”
Ava came out next.
She carried something.
An old phone.
“I hid this.”
Vanessa stood.
“Ava!”
Officer Reed immediately stepped between them.
Ava ran to me.
“What is it?”
She handed me the phone.
“I took pictures.”
Vanessa’s face went pale.
Ms. Torres turned toward Ava.
“Pictures of what?”
Ava unlocked the phone.
There were photographs of Nia eating alone at the kitchen counter.
Nia’s dinner was a piece of toast.
Another showed the pantry handles tied together.
Another showed Nia sleeping on the laundry-room floor beside a basket of clothes.
I looked at my daughter.
“Nia?”
She lowered her head.
Vanessa spoke quickly.
“She fell asleep there.”
Ava shook her head.
“Mom made her stay until all the clothes were folded.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
Caleb answered.
“Past midnight.”
I couldn’t speak.
I remembered that night.
I had been in Philadelphia.
Vanessa called me around nine.
She told me all three children were asleep.
I had smiled.
I had told her I loved her.
While my daughter was folding laundry on the floor.
Ms. Torres took possession of the phone as evidence.
Officer Reed asked Vanessa to gather a few personal belongings.
“You’re making me leave my own house?”
“For tonight,” he said. “You need to stay somewhere else while we determine what happened.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“You’re choosing her over Caleb and Ava.”
Caleb stepped forward.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
He was crying, but his voice was steady.
“He’s choosing all of us.”
Vanessa stared at her son.
Something in her expression frightened him.
I moved beside Caleb.
“Go upstairs with your sisters.”
They left together.
For the first time, I noticed that Nia took Ava’s hand.
Vanessa saw it too.
“You poisoned them against me.”
I almost laughed.
But nothing was funny.
“You did this.”
She grabbed her purse.
At the door, she turned.
“You think Grant’s going to let this disappear?”
“Who is Grant?”
She realized her mistake.
Too late.
I stepped closer.
“Who is Grant Mercer?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Then Officer Reed’s radio crackled.
He listened.
His expression changed.
He looked at Vanessa.
“Ma’am, do you know Grant Mercer?”
She went still.
Officer Reed continued.
“Because another officer just located him outside your husband’s office.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
The officer looked at me.
“He was carrying an envelope addressed to your business partners.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“What was inside?” I asked.
Officer Reed paused.
“Copies of the same abuse allegations.”
I looked at my wife.
This wasn’t just about getting Nia out.
May you like
Vanessa had been preparing to destroy my life.
And suddenly I needed to know how long she had been planning it.
