Chapter 3
Red and blue lights flashed through the kitchen windows.
Jenna began screaming before the officers entered.
“Help me!”
She ran upstairs.
“My husband attacked me! He has a knife!”
I stayed in the basement with Lily and Megan.
Running after her would make everything worse.
The pantry door opened.
“Police!”
“My daughter is down here!” I shouted. “There is an injured woman too.”
Two officers descended with their weapons raised.
I lifted both hands.
The first officer, Detective Lena Torres, recognized Megan’s restraints.
Her expression hardened.
“Step away from everyone.”
I obeyed.
Megan pointed toward the pipe.
“Jenna locked me here.”
Torres looked at Lily.
Dirty water stained the bottom of her dress.
Her cheek was red.
Bruises darkened her arm.
“What happened to the child?”
“My wife was forcing her face toward a mop bucket.”
“That is a lie!” Jenna shouted from upstairs.
A second officer brought her down.
Jenna held an ice pack against her wrist.
“He attacked me because Lily had a tantrum.”
Lily hid behind Megan.
Torres lowered her voice.
“Lily, did your father hurt anyone?”
“No.”
“Did Jenna hurt you?”
Lily looked at me.
Jenna saw it.
“She knows what Mark wants her to say.”
Torres stepped between them.
“Mrs. Cole, stop speaking to the child.”
Jenna’s mouth closed.
The officer photographed the basement, the rope, the knife and the hidden door.
Paramedics examined Megan.
Her wrists had been cut by the restraints.
She had a concussion.
Lily’s bruises were in different stages of healing.
The paramedic quietly told Torres they were not consistent with normal childhood falls.
Jenna heard.
“She’s clumsy.”
Lily began shaking.
Torres crouched several feet away from her.
“Did Jenna tell you not to talk?”
Lily nodded.
“What did she say would happen?”
Jenna interrupted.
“She is six years old!”
Torres stood.
“One more interruption, and you will be removed.”
Jenna folded her arms.
Lily whispered, “She said Daddy didn’t believe Mommy either.”
My stomach tightened.
“I never knew Claire was afraid of Jenna.”
Megan stared at me.
“She tried to tell you.”
“When?”
“The week before she died.”
I remembered the final argument I had with Claire.
She accused Jenna, then her friend and our part-time bookkeeper, of stealing company records.
I told Claire she was exhausted.
I said grief over her father’s death had made her suspicious.
Jenna sat at our kitchen table afterward and comforted me.
“She said Jenna was dangerous,” Megan continued.
“I thought she meant financially.”
“You thought what was easier.”
The words hurt because they were true.
Detective Torres asked for the memory card.
Megan hesitated.
“There are copies.”
“Good. Give me this one.”
Jenna moved suddenly.
She snatched the card from Megan’s fingers and threw it into the dirty water flowing across the basement floor.
An officer grabbed her.
Torres picked up the card with a gloved hand.
“It may still be recoverable.”
Jenna laughed.
“You have no proof of what was on it.”
Megan looked at her.
“The cloud backup finished before you found me.”
Jenna stopped smiling.
Torres ordered her handcuffed.
Jenna stared at me as the officer turned her around.
“Mark, tell them this is a misunderstanding.”
“You put my daughter’s face over dirty water.”
“She was screaming and hitting me.”
“You locked Megan underground.”
“She came to blackmail us.”
“You knew about the hidden room.”
“So did Claire.”
The name made me step closer.
“What happened in that room?”
Jenna’s eyes flickered toward Lily.
Then she smiled again.
“Ask your daughter why she keeps dreaming about Claire screaming.”
Lily covered her ears.
I moved between them.
“Do not speak to her.”
Torres led Jenna upstairs.
As she passed me, she whispered, “You’ll lose Lily before morning.”
I thought it was another threat.
Then Jenna’s attorney arrived.
He carried an emergency custody petition filed two days earlier.
The document accused me of alcoholism, violent behavior and neglect.
Attached were photographs of Lily’s bruises.
The filing claimed I caused them.
There were videos too.
In one, I shouted inside the garage.
In another, I punched a wall.
Both were recorded after Claire died.
Both ended before Jenna entered the frame.
Jenna had been collecting moments of grief and turning them into evidence.
Her attorney looked at Torres.
“My client fears for the child’s safety.”
Torres stared at Lily’s stained dress.
“Your client is being questioned about unlawful confinement and child abuse.”
The attorney remained calm.
“No charges have been filed.”
He handed me another document.
Jenna had asked the court to place Lily with my mother, Margaret, until the case was resolved.
I almost felt relief.
Then my mother entered the kitchen.
She did not look at Lily.
She walked directly to Jenna and embraced her.
“My poor girl,” Mom whispered.
Jenna began crying against her shoulder.
May you like
Mom looked at me over Jenna’s head.
“You came home and ruined everything.”
