Chapter 1
I knew something was wrong the second I walked through the front door.
The house was too quiet.
Not peaceful.
Wrong.
I dropped my keys onto the entry table and heard a small voice coming from the dining room.
“I was hungry.”
It was Lily.
My five-year-old daughter.
I followed her voice and stopped just outside the doorway.
Lily stood beside the table with tears sliding down her cheeks.
One tiny hand held half a dinner roll.
My wife, Vanessa, stood over her.
Vanessa’s seven-year-old son, Mason, sat at the table with chicken, potatoes, vegetables, and two untouched rolls on his plate.
Vanessa pointed at Lily.
“I told you not to touch Mason’s food.”
Lily looked down.
“But there’s more bread.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
Vanessa ripped the roll from her hand.
Lily flinched.
“I’m sorry.”
My chest tightened.
I had worked late that day.
Vanessa had texted me hours earlier saying the children had eaten.
Apparently, that had been a lie.
Mason shifted nervously in his chair.
“Mom, Lily can have mine.”
Vanessa snapped toward him.
“Mason, stay out of it.”
His face fell.
Lily looked toward the bread basket.
There were at least four rolls inside.
She hesitated.
Then her little hand moved toward one.
Vanessa slapped her.
The sound cracked through the room.
Lily stumbled sideways and hit the back of a chair.
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Lily covered her cheek and burst into tears.
“Mom!”
Mason jumped from his chair.
I felt something inside me go cold.
Vanessa grabbed Lily’s wrist.
“You need to understand that you cannot take whatever you want.”
“I’m sorry!”
Lily sobbed.
“I won’t do it again.”
That was enough.
I stepped into the dining room.
My work bag hit the floor.
“What did you just do?”
Vanessa spun around.
Her face drained of color.
“Michael.”
Lily saw me.
“Daddy!”
Vanessa released her immediately.
Lily ran toward me.
I caught her and lifted her into my arms.
Her entire body trembled.
I looked at the red mark spreading across her cheek.
My stomach twisted.
“What happened?”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“She was stealing Mason’s food.”
“She’s five.”
“She still needs rules.”
Lily buried her face against my neck.
“I wasn’t stealing, Daddy. I was hungry.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“Why was my daughter hungry?”
“She refused lunch.”
Mason spoke quietly.
“No, she didn’t.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward him.
“Mason.”
He swallowed.
But then he looked directly at me.
“Mom told Lily she wasn’t allowed to eat dinner.”
Everything inside me stopped.
I slowly lowered Lily behind me.
“Is that true?”
Vanessa sighed as though I were annoying her.
“She was being difficult earlier.”
“What does that mean?”
“She talked back.”
Lily whispered behind me.
“I asked for Mommy’s picture.”
My breath caught.
Lily’s mother, Sarah, had died three years earlier.
Lily kept a framed photograph of her beside her bed.
Vanessa had always claimed she understood that Lily needed memories of her mother.
“What happened to the picture?” I asked.
Lily said nothing.
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Michael.”
I walked toward her.
“Did you deny my five-year-old daughter dinner because she asked for a picture of her dead mother?”
“You’re twisting everything.”
“Did you hit her because she tried to eat?”
“She needs discipline.”
Something snapped.
I slapped Vanessa.
She staggered backward against the table.
Mason gasped.
Vanessa pressed a hand to her cheek.
“You hit me.”
“You put your hands on my daughter.”
Her expression turned furious.
“That does not give you permission—”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You don’t get to talk about permission after starving and hitting a child.”
Vanessa stared at me.
For the first time since I had met her, she seemed unsure of herself.
Then Lily tugged on my shirt.
“Daddy?”
I turned immediately.
She pointed toward the kitchen pantry.
“Sometimes she locks the food in there.”
My blood ran cold.
“What?”
Lily’s voice became smaller.
“So I can’t eat.”
Vanessa moved quickly.
“She’s exaggerating.”
I looked toward the pantry door.
There was a small combination lock attached to the handle.
I had noticed it before.
Vanessa had told me she installed it because Mason kept sneaking candy before dinner.
I had believed her.
God help me.
I had believed her.
I crouched in front of Lily.
“How many times has she stopped you from eating?”
Lily stared at the floor.
“I don’t know.”
“Sweetheart, tell me the truth.”
“A lot.”
My eyes burned.
I looked toward Mason.
He was pale.
“Mason?”
Vanessa stepped between us.
“Do not drag him into this.”
Mason moved away from her.
That small movement told me more than words could.
I softened my voice.
“You’re not in trouble, buddy.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Mom said I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“Mason.”
He backed toward me.
“She said you would send us away.”
My stomach dropped.
“What wasn’t he supposed to tell me?”
Vanessa grabbed her phone from the table.
“This conversation is over.”
“No.”
I stepped between her and the hallway.
“Not until I know what has been happening in my house.”
“You’re scaring the children.”
Mason suddenly laughed.
It wasn’t happy.
It was the strange, shaky sound children make when adults say something absurd.
“You scare us.”
Vanessa froze.
Mason looked at Lily.
Then at me.
His lower lip trembled.
“Dad…”
He had started calling me Dad six months earlier.
Right then, hearing it nearly broke me.
“She does worse things when you’re gone.”
Vanessa lunged toward him.
“Mason!”
I caught her wrist before she reached him.
“Don’t touch him.”
She tried to pull away.
“Let go of me.”
I released her and moved both children behind me.
“What does she do?”
Mason’s face crumpled.
“She makes Lily sleep in the basement when she cries about her mom.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“What?”
“And sometimes…”
He looked terrified.
I crouched.
“Sometimes what?”
Vanessa shouted.
“Stop talking!”
Mason flinched.
Then something changed in his expression.
Maybe he realized I was finally there.
Maybe he realized someone might finally listen.
He whispered, “She has a room downstairs.”
I stared at him.
“What room?”
“The one she says you can never know about.”
Vanessa rushed for the kitchen.
I caught sight of something in her hand.
Keys.
She was heading toward the basement door.
I moved after her.
“Vanessa!”
She reached the door first.
Before she could unlock it, I grabbed the keys from her hand.
Her eyes widened.
“Michael, don’t.”
Those three words terrified me more than anything else she had said.
I looked at Lily.
She was clinging to Mason.
Both children were staring at the basement door.
I put the key into the lock.
Vanessa grabbed my arm.
“You’re making a mistake.”
I pulled free.
“No.”
I turned the key.
“I think the mistake was trusting you.”
The basement door opened.
Cold air drifted up the stairs.
Then Lily whispered something that made every hair on my arms rise.
“Daddy…”
I looked back.
Her face was white.
“That’s where she makes me go when I’m bad.”
I stared into the darkness below.
May you like
And beside me, Mason whispered,
“That’s not the worst thing she does down there.”
