Chapter 2 - The Man My Father Feared
Dad opened the front door wearing the smile he used on neighbors.
"Officers. My daughter had a panic attack. My wifeā"
"Sir, step outside," an officer said.
He tried to close the door. Another officer caught it, and the smile vanished.
From the top of the stairs, I watched Dad put his hands behind his back. He looked up and saw me.
"Emily. Tell them I never touched you."
My cheek throbbed. I didn't answer.
A woman in a dark jacket came up behind the officers. "I'm Detective Marisol Vega. Is Sarah Hart here?"
Mom appeared at the kitchen doorway, holding a dish towel to her mouth. She tried to walk, but her knees buckled.
"Mom!"
"Stay upstairs, honey," the detective said. "The paramedics are coming in."
Dad twisted toward her. "Sarah, don't make this worse."
"You don't get to tell her what to do," said the white-haired man from the SUV.
Dad went still. "Caleb."
"Hello, Ethan."
The two men looked nothing alike except for their eyes. Caleb's were tired. Dad's were full of something I'd never seen there before: fear without anger to hide behind.
The officers took Dad to a patrol car. I gave my name and told Detective Vega what I'd seen. She photographed the swelling on my cheek and asked whether I needed medical care. I said yes, mostly because saying no had become a habit I wanted to break.
In the ambulance, Mom reached for me. The paramedic helped us hold hands without moving her injured neck.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"You didn't hit me."
She began crying then, quietly and terribly.
The other black SUVs had carried plainclothes investigators who had been notified after police ran Dad's name and found the outstanding warrant. Caleb followed us to the hospital. Before I got into the ambulance, I asked him about it.
"Your father walked away from a fraud investigation seven years ago," he said. "And before he disappeared, he made people believe your mother had committed the crime."
"What crime?"
May you like
Caleb looked at Mom, then back at me.
"Money meant for families whose parents were killed at work."
