Chapter 4 - The House on Willow Creek
The statement hung in the warm air of the room, heavy and absolute.
Evelyn blinked, a sharp, disbelieving laugh escaping her nose. "What did you just say?"
"You have twenty minutes to collect your personal belongings," Daniel said, his voice dropping an octave, becoming impossibly cold. "If you are still in this house at 04:30 PM, I will call the Sheriff's Department and file charges for aggravated child abuse and domestic assault."
"Charges?" Evelyn sneered, taking a step toward him, her brown eyes flashing with dangerous confidence. "With what evidence, Daniel? A red mark on a boy's face? You think the court is going to take the word of a mentally unstable seven-year-old over mine? I'm his stepmother. I was disciplining him. Parents discipline their children every single day."
"The mark on his face is consistent with blunt force impact from a ring," Daniel noted, his eyes scanning her left hand, where a large, square-cut topaz ring sat on her middle finger. "And the belt on the floor bears your fingerprints."
"I was picking it up!" she shouted, her composure cracking again. "He pulled it out of the closet!"
"Twenty minutes, Evelyn," Daniel repeated, turning his back on her as if she were nothing more than a piece of discarded furniture. He walked toward the hallway, carrying Lily on his hip and keeping Leo tucked tightly against his side. "The clock started ten seconds ago."
Evelyn stood in the center of the rug, her chest rising and falling violently. She stared at the back of Daniel’s dark olive jacket as he disappeared around the corner toward the children's bedrooms.
A dark, sinister smile slowly spread across her lips.
"You think this is over, Daniel?" she whispered to the empty living room, her eyes narrowing as she looked down at the leather belt lying on the rug. "You have no idea what I've put in motion."
Upstairs, in the small, cheerful bedroom decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars and framed drawings of dinosaurs, Daniel set Lily down in her wooden crib. He handed her a stuffed yellow duck, which she clutched frantically against her tiny chest, her whimpering finally subsiding into quiet, hitching breaths.
Daniel then turned to Leo, sitting down on the edge of the child-sized bed. He reached out with both hands, gently cupping the boy’s shoulders.
"Leo," Daniel said softly, his stormy gray eyes searching his son's pale face. "Look at me, buddy."
Leo looked up, his swollen cheek shiny with tears. "Dad... I'm sorry... I tried to hide her... I tried to keep Lily in the closet under the blankets, but she cried—"
"Shh," Daniel interrupted gently, placing a thumb over the boy's lips. "You did nothing wrong, Leo. You hear me? You were incredible. You protected your sister."
"She... she was gonna hit her with the iron buckle," Leo sobbed, a fresh wave of tears spilling over his lower eyelids. "She said... she said if I didn't tell her where Lily was, she was gonna make me go away like Mom went away."
Daniel’s entire body went rigid. The softness in his eyes instantly vanished, replaced by an abyssal, terrifying void.
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"What did she say about your mother?" Daniel asked, his voice dropping into a register so quiet it was almost a whisper.
"She said... she said Mom didn't die in an accident," Leo whimpered, clutching Daniel’s sleeves with his small, bruised hands. "She said Mom ran away because she hated us... and that if I didn't obey her, she'd make sure I ran away too."
