Chapter 3 - Vanessa Called First
The police knocked on my door twenty-three minutes later.
Two officers.
One male.
One female.
Vanessa stood on the sidewalk behind them.
She had a red mark across her cheek.
I knew exactly why they were there.
“Mr. Bennett?” the male officer asked.
“Yes.”
“We received a report of an assault.”
Vanessa gave me a tiny smile from behind him.
Of course she had called.
Claire whispered, “Unbelievable.”
I stepped onto the porch.
“I slapped her.”
The officer looked surprised by how quickly I admitted it.
“Can you explain what happened?”
“Yes.”
So I did.
I told them about the cake.
The insult.
The birthday party.
The broken engagement.
I did not excuse the slap.
“I lost my temper,” I said. “I shouldn’t have hit her.”
Vanessa called from the sidewalk.
“Finally, something honest.”
The female officer looked toward her.
“Ma’am, let him speak.”
I continued.
“My daughter is upstairs. She’s six. She just told me Vanessa has been locking her in her bedroom and threatening her not to tell me.”
The officers looked at each other.
Vanessa’s confidence slipped.
“That is a lie.”
The female officer turned.
“Ma’am.”
“She’s lying because he told her to.”
I stepped forward.
The male officer raised his hand.
“Mr. Bennett, stay there.”
I stopped.
Vanessa pointed at me.
“You see? He’s aggressive.”
Claire appeared in the doorway.
“I saw everything.”
Vanessa snapped, “Of course you’ll defend your brother.”
“So will twenty people from the party.”
Vanessa laughed.
“About cake. Not abuse.”
That word changed the air.
Abuse.
I hated hearing it connected to my daughter.
The female officer asked if she could speak to Lily.
My first instinct was to say no.
Then I remembered Lily whispering, Please don’t leave me alone with her again.
“Okay,” I said. “But I stay nearby.”
The officer nodded.
She spoke with Lily in the living room while I waited in the kitchen.
Those ten minutes felt like ten years.
When the officer returned, her face had changed.
She asked me, “Does Ms. Cole live here?”
“She moved in eight months ago.”
“Does she have belongings inside?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa immediately said, “I’m going in to get my things.”
The officer stopped her.
“Not tonight.”
“It’s my home.”
“Your belongings can be collected later.”
Vanessa stared at me.
I had never seen her lose control so completely.
“You’re doing this?”
“I didn’t call them.”
“You hit me!”
“And I said I was wrong.”
She laughed.
“No. You don’t get to play the good father now.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa stepped around the officer.
“You think Lily is some perfect little angel?”
“Don’t.”
“She manipulates you.”
“She’s six.”
“She knows exactly how to get you to choose her.”
I stared at her.
“Choose her?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears now.
Real or fake, I couldn’t tell anymore.
“For three years, I have been competing with a dead woman and her daughter.”
Claire inhaled sharply.
I went cold.
“Get off my property.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“You’re going to regret this.”
The officers walked her toward her car.
She opened the driver’s door, then glanced back at me.
“And when you find out what your precious daughter did, don’t call me.”
She drove away.
I wanted to believe that was the end.
It wasn’t.
The next morning, I woke to seventy-three missed calls.
My face was all over social media.
May you like
Vanessa had posted a video.
And in the video, it looked like I had attacked her for no reason.
