Chapter 2
For three seconds, none of us moved.
The crying came again.
Soft.
Muffled.
Then a little voice said, “Rachel?”
My blood went cold.
I looked at my wife.
Rachel stared back at me, but something had changed in her face.
The irritation was gone.
So was the confidence.
She looked afraid.
“Move,” I said.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
“Move away from the door.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
I tightened my arm around Lily.
“That sentence has never made anything better.”
Rachel lowered her voice.
“You’re scaring Lily.”
I almost laughed.
“You had her scrubbing a kitchen floor on bleeding knees because she wanted dinner.”
“They are not bleeding.”
Lily flinched at Rachel’s tone.
That was enough.
“Go upstairs,” I told Rachel.
She blinked.
“What?”
“Go upstairs and stay away from my daughter.”
“You can’t order me around in my own house.”
The crying below us became louder.
“Please let me out.”
Lily wrapped both arms around my neck.
“He gets scared when the light goes off.”
I looked at her.
“He?”
She covered her mouth immediately.
Rachel took a step toward us.
“Lily.”
“Don’t speak to her.”
My voice came out so cold that Rachel stopped.
I carried Lily toward the basement door.
Rachel grabbed my forearm.
I looked down at her hand.
“Let go.”
“Daniel, you need to calm down.”
“There is a child locked in my basement.”
“He isn’t locked in.”
“Then why is he asking to be let out?”
Rachel said nothing.
I pulled my arm free.
The basement door had a deadbolt installed above the regular knob.
That deadbolt had not been there when I left for Seattle.
I unlocked it.
Rachel moved again.
“Daniel, if you open that door before I explain, you’re going to destroy this family.”
I looked back at her.
“No. Whatever is behind this door already did that.”
I opened it.
The basement lights were off.
“Daddy,” Lily whispered, “the switch doesn’t work from down there.”
My chest tightened.
I turned on the light at the top of the stairs.
The basement looked almost normal at first.
Boxes.
Laundry machines.
An old treadmill.
Storage shelves.
Then I saw a second door at the far end.
It used to be the door to the small wine-storage room the previous owner had built.
A sliding bolt had been attached to the outside.
The crying came from behind it.
I set Lily down.
“Stay right beside me.”
Rachel came down three steps.
“Daniel, stop.”
I didn’t.
I crossed the basement.
The bolt scraped loudly when I pulled it open.
I opened the door.
A boy sat on a thin mattress on the floor.
He looked seven or eight.
His knees were pulled to his chest.
There was a blanket beside him.
A plastic cup of water.
An empty plate.
No window.
No lamp.
His eyes widened when he saw me.
Then he looked behind me at Rachel.
“I finished the pages.”
Pages?
I looked beside the mattress.
A stack of handwriting worksheets sat on the floor.
Across the top page, someone had written:
I WILL OBEY THE FIRST TIME.
The sentence filled the entire sheet.
Again and again.
My stomach twisted.
“What’s your name?” I asked gently.
The boy swallowed.
“Noah.”
“How old are you, Noah?”
“Eight.”
“Are you hurt?”
His eyes immediately went to Rachel.
That told me more than his answer could have.
Rachel pushed into the room.
“This is ridiculous. Noah, tell Daniel you’re fine.”
The boy shrank backward.
I stepped between them.
“Get out.”
“He’s my nephew.”
I turned.
“What?”
“My sister’s son. Noah is Monica’s child.”
I knew Monica existed.
Barely.
Rachel had an older sister she almost never discussed.
I had been told Monica lived in Nevada.
I had never met her.
I looked at Noah.
“How long have you been here?”
Rachel answered first.
“Two weeks.”
Noah whispered, “Thirty-four days.”
Silence.
Rachel’s face hardened.
“He doesn’t understand time.”
Noah pointed toward the wall.
There were pencil marks on it.
Thirty-four vertical lines.
Grouped in fives.
I felt physically sick.
“Daddy,” Lily whispered.
I turned.
She was staring at Noah’s plate.
“Rachel gave him crackers yesterday because he didn’t finish the bathroom.”
Rachel snapped.
“That is enough!”
Both children jumped.
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
Rachel stared at it.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the police.”
Her expression collapsed.
“Daniel.”
I dialed.
“Please.”
I looked at the woman I had shared a bed with for two years.
The woman who had kissed me goodbye three mornings ago.
The woman I had trusted with my child.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
Someone answered.
“911. What is your emergency?”
“My name is Daniel Mercer,” I said. “I just came home and found two children being punished in my house. One of them appears to have been locked in a basement room.”
Rachel lunged for the phone.
I stepped away.
“Daniel, hang up!”
The dispatcher heard her.
“Sir, are you in immediate danger?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel started crying.
Not quietly.
Not gently.
She collapsed onto the bottom step like her legs had stopped working.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “Monica abandoned him. I was trying to fix him.”
Noah’s face crumpled.
I looked at him.
“You don’t need fixing.”
His lower lip trembled.
Those four words seemed to break something inside him.
He started sobbing.
Lily walked over and sat beside him.
She put her tiny hand over his.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “My daddy came home.”
I had to turn away for a second.
The dispatcher told me officers were on the way.
Rachel heard it.
Her tears stopped almost instantly.
That frightened me more than the crying had.
She stood.
Her expression became flat.
“You think you won,” she said.
“This is not a game.”
“You have no idea what Monica is like.”
“Then we’ll let the authorities figure that out.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“The authorities?”
“Yes.”
“You really want strangers digging through our family?”
“They won’t have to dig very far.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Then she said something I did not understand.
“Ask your brother.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
Rachel folded her arms.
“Ask Michael how much he knew.”
My brother.
My younger brother had dinner with us twice a month.
He had watched Lily when Rachel and I attended a wedding in June.
He had a key to my house.
“What are you talking about?”
Rachel smiled.
It was small.
Ugly.
Almost relieved.
“You think I did all this alone?”
A siren sounded faintly outside.
Then another.
I looked toward the basement stairs.
Rachel leaned closer.
“Before you decide I’m the monster, Daniel, you should find out why your own brother gave me the money.”
“What money?”
She didn’t answer.
Red and blue lights flashed through the basement window near the ceiling.
Someone pounded on the front door.
“Police!”
Lily clung to me.
Noah froze.
I climbed the stairs with both children behind me.
Rachel followed.
Before I opened the front door, my phone buzzed.
Michael.
My brother.
One message.
DON’T SAY ANYTHING TO THE POLICE UNTIL I GET THERE.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
YOU DON’T KNOW THE WHOLE STORY.
May you like
I slowly looked back at Rachel.
She was smiling again.
