Chapter 2 - AFTER THE THIRD BOOM
For three seconds, Marissa believed she had killed them.
There was no fire.
No collapsing wall.
No blast wave.
Just the echo.
Then Owen began screaming again.
That sound brought her back.
She dropped the device.
“Don't touch it.”
Beverly had backed against the far wall.
Her mouth was open.
Marissa looked at the children.
“Chloe. Look at Mommy.”
Chloe was crying.
Responsive.
Good.
“Owen?”
“Mommy.”
Good.
Marissa grabbed her phone.
Her first call was 911.
Not Beverly.
Not a lawyer.
Not Jason's old company.
“My mother-in-law assaulted both of my children.”
The dispatcher started questions.
Then Marissa forced herself to say the rest.
“I also threatened her with some kind of device.”
Beverly looked at her.
Marissa continued.
“I pressed it.”
“What kind of device?”
“I don't know.”
That answer sounded as bad aloud as it had inside her head.
“There were three loud blasts. I don't see fire. I don't know whether it's dangerous.”
The dispatcher told everyone to leave if they could do so safely.
Marissa looked toward her crutch.
Across the room.
Impossible with both children.
Beverly moved first.
“I'll get them.”
“Don't touch my children.”
“They need to get out.”
“No.”
“Marissa—”
“Get my crutch.”
Beverly stared.
Then picked it up.
She extended it.
Marissa would not take it directly from her.
“Set it down.”
Beverly did.
For the first time all afternoon, she followed an instruction.
Marissa got upright with the sofa.
Chloe held her shirt.
Owen reached up.
She could not carry both.
Beverly said:
“I can carry him.”
“No.”
Chloe whispered:
“I can walk.”
Marissa looked at her daughter.
A six-year-old trying to solve adult logistics because the adults had failed.
“No, baby.”
She took Owen.
Chloe held onto the back of her sweater.
They moved toward the door together.
Slowly.
Beverly followed several feet behind.
Outside, a neighbor was already standing on the sidewalk.
“What happened?”
Marissa ignored him.
She sat with the children on the grass.
Five minutes later, the street filled with emergency vehicles.
Paramedics first.
Police.
Then the fire department.
A bomb squad was requested because nobody knew what the black box actually was.
Beverly started telling an officer:
“She threatened to blow up my house.”
Marissa looked up.
“It's my house.”
Beverly stopped.
The deed was actually in Jason and Marissa's names.
Jason dead.
Marissa surviving owner.
Beverly knew that.
Her language had revealed something else.
Possession.
Control.
Officer Daniel Shaw crouched near Marissa.
“Did you threaten her?”
“Yes.”
Beverly stared.
Marissa continued.
“I told her if she came closer I'd press it.”
“And you pressed it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe it was a bomb?”
Marissa looked at the black device visible through the open front door.
“I didn't know.”
Officer Shaw's expression did not soften.
Good.
“What did you think would happen?”
“I thought she'd stop.”
There.
No heroic explanation.
She had used terror.
While both children were beside her.
Because she was cornered.
Because she was furious.
Because it worked did not make it safe.
Then Chloe told the paramedic:
“Grandma Bev hit me.”
Beverly's expression changed.
Officer Shaw turned.
“Grandmother?”
“Paternal.”
Marissa answered.
Beverly snapped:
“I did not hit her. The paddle slipped when she came at me.”
Chloe started crying harder.
Marissa's voice changed.
“Stop talking about her.”
Officer Shaw held up one hand.
“Mrs. Beverly, step over there.”
Beverly went.
Not willingly.
The paramedics transported both children for evaluation.
Marissa went with them.
As the ambulance doors closed, she looked through the back window.
Two bomb technicians entered her house.
One of them stopped when he saw the black box.
Then called the other over.
They both stared at it.
Not alarmed.
May you like
Recognizing.
And Marissa realized this might not have been the first time someone in that street had seen Jason's device.
