Chapter 3 - WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO SAY
Daniel opened the folded page carefully.
Inside was a list of questions and answers.
Does your father leave you alone often?
YES.
Does he yell when you ask for help?
YES.
Do you feel safer with Aunt Rachel?
YES.
At the bottom was a final instruction.
If they ask about Lily, say she cries when Dad comes home.
Daniel sat on Noah’s bed.
“What hearing?”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Did Rachel make you practice this?”
“Three times.”
Lily whispered, “Four.”
Noah looked at her.
“She did it when you were at soccer too?”
Lily nodded.
Daniel closed his eyes for one second.
He had trusted Rachel because she was family. After his wife, Emily, died eighteen months earlier, Rachel had moved into the guest suite and insisted she wanted to help.
Daniel worked long hours, and Rachel handled school pickups, dinners, and appointments. He had called her a lifesaver.
Now his son was showing him a script designed to make him look dangerous.
His phone rang.
Rachel.
He let it go to voicemail.
Then another call came in.
His father.
Then his mother.
Then his cousin Mark.
Within five minutes, six relatives had texted him some version of the same sentence.
Rachel says you threw her out over a misunderstanding.
Daniel muted the phone.
“Dad,” Noah said, “there’s more.”
Daniel looked at him.
Noah reached behind his bookshelf and pulled out an old digital voice recorder.
It had belonged to Emily.
“I hid it because she kept saying you’d never believe us,” Noah said.
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“Did you record her?”
“Sometimes.”
He pressed PLAY.
For several seconds there was only static.
Then Rachel’s voice filled the room.
“If your father loses his temper at the hearing, you don’t look at him. Understand?”
Noah’s recorded voice answered, small and scared.
“But Dad doesn’t hit us.”
Rachel replied calmly.
“I didn’t say he hits you. I said people need to understand he isn’t stable.”
Daniel froze.
Then another voice appeared on the recording.
A man’s voice.
May you like
And Daniel knew it.
It belonged to Rachel’s attorney.
