Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO CALLED FIRST
David stared at his son.
“What did you say?”
Leo’s eyes drifted toward the ambulance doors.
The paramedic gently moved David aside.
“Let’s give him a minute.”
David swallowed the questions burning in his throat.
“Okay. I’m here, buddy.”
He rode beside Leo while a police officer stayed with Maya until Sarah could meet them at the hospital. She had remained at the hotel that morning, exhausted after another sleepless night.
David had promised the visit would be short.
Now he watched a monitor trace his son’s heartbeat.
Each rising line felt impossible.
At the hospital, Sarah came through the emergency entrance wearing mismatched shoes.
She stopped when she saw the stretcher.
“Leo?”
His eyes opened.
She touched his forehead with two fingers, almost afraid he might disappear.
“It’s me,” she said. “Baby, it’s Mom.”
“I tried to come home.”
Sarah bent over him.
“You don’t have to explain anything.”
David turned away before Leo could see him break.
An hour later, a detective named Marisol Reyes joined him in a small consultation room.
“Elena’s in custody,” she said. “Officers are securing the house.”
“My father knew.”
Reyes remained still.
“What makes you say that?”
David repeated Leo’s words exactly.
“Don’t question him about it yourself,” she said. “We’ll have someone trained to speak with children meet him when his doctors say he’s ready.”
“You think he’s confused?”
“I think he’s been through something terrible. I want his words protected.”
David’s phone vibrated on the table.
DAD.
He stared at it.
“How does he know?”
“Answer normally,” Reyes said. “Don’t tell him what Leo said.”
David accepted the call.
His father’s voice came through sharp and controlled.
“Where is your sister?”
David’s grip tightened.
“Leo’s alive.”
“I heard.”
“From who?”
A pause.
“David, listen. Your sister needs help. This situation is more complicated than it looks.”
David looked at Reyes.
She was already writing.
“My son was under her floor.”
“I understand you’re upset.”
“Upset?”
“Lower your voice.”
The old command landed exactly where it always had.
At his father’s dinner table. In his father’s office. At the estate after Leo vanished, when David wanted to search the outbuildings again.
For once, David didn’t obey.
“Ask me how he is.”
“What?”
“Your grandson. Ask me if he’s alive enough to speak. Ask me if he’s hurting.”
His father said nothing.
Then, quietly, “Don’t let him talk to anyone until I get there.”
David ended the call.
Reyes looked up.
“Where does your father live?”
David gave her the address.
May you like
For fourteen months, the man had led the family’s prayers.
Now David wondered what, exactly, he had been praying for.
