Chapter 6 - WHAT MILO HEARD THROUGH THE WALL
Milo didn't want to return home.
Savannah didn't ask twice.
She took him to her apartment.
For two nights he barely slept.
Every sound from the hallway woke him.
On the third night, Savannah found him sitting on the kitchen floor at 2 A.M.
“What are you doing?”
Milo held a glass of water.
“I dropped one at home.”
Savannah understood.
The broken glass from that night.
“It was an accident?”
He nodded.
“Derek said I was careless.”
“That isn't a reason to hit you.”
Milo stared at the glass.
“I know.”
Savannah sat beside him.
After several minutes, Milo said:
“Mom knew he was going to do it.”
Savannah turned.
“What?”
“Sometimes she leaves the room.”
“Before Derek hits you?”
Milo nodded.
“But that night she stayed.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Then he remembered something.
“I heard them fighting before you came.”
“What did they say?”
Milo squeezed the glass with both hands.
“Derek said the money was almost gone.”
Savannah frowned.
“What money?”
“I don't know.”
“And Mom?”
“She said Caleb couldn't find out.”
Savannah went still.
“You're sure he said Caleb?”
“Yes.”
Milo looked frightened.
“Is Caleb really my dad?”
Savannah didn't know how to answer.
“Biologically, yes.”
“Is he bad?”
Savannah looked at her brother.
She could have repeated Janice's story.
She could have repeated Caleb's.
Instead she chose something nobody in the family seemed willing to give Milo.
The truth they actually knew.
“I don't know him well enough yet.”
Milo nodded.
That answer seemed to comfort him.
Then he whispered:
“Derek has a box.”
“What box?”
“In the garage.”
Savannah's attention sharpened.
“He said I'm never allowed to touch it.”
“What does it look like?”
“Black. With a lock.”
“What does he keep inside?”
Milo shook his head.
“But Mom told him they had to move it before Caleb came back.”
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Savannah looked toward her phone.
Suddenly, the abuse and Caleb's disappearance no longer felt like separate secrets.
