Chapter 4 - The Neighbor at the Gate
Caroline stepped into the doorway, blocking me.
“She fell,” she said, voice shaking now. “You’re overreacting.”
Before I could answer, a flashlight beam trembled near the iron gate.
I turned.
Mrs. Kennedy, our elderly neighbor, stood there in a white cardigan, one hand holding a flashlight, the other gripping her phone. Her face was wet with tears.
“Sawyer…” she said.
Caroline froze.
Mrs. Kennedy raised the phone slightly.
“I have the video.”
For a second, nobody moved.
Not me.
Not Caroline.
Not even Gracie, who was half-asleep against my shoulder, exhausted from fear and pain.
Caroline’s face drained of color.
“What video?” she whispered.
Mrs. Kennedy looked ashamed, but determined.
“My kitchen window faces your side yard,” she said. “I heard shouting yesterday. I started recording because I was afraid. I should have called sooner. I’m sorry.”
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Caroline looked from Mrs. Kennedy to me.
“You called the police?”
Mrs. Kennedy’s voice broke.
“I called because a child needed help.”
Blue and red light began to reflect across the wet driveway.
Caroline stepped back as if the lights themselves had touched her.
I looked at my wife one last time.
May you like
“You don’t get near my daughter again.”
Then I walked forward into the night with Gracie safe in my arms.
