Chapter 1 - The Door Closed
The front door began closing while Rebecca was still begging.
“Dad, please. Just for tonight.”
Rain streamed down her floral green blouse and soaked through her jeans. Behind her, twelve-year-old Lily held four-year-old Grace against her chest. Ethan stood beside the torn garbage bag, clutching his dinosaur blanket beneath his chin.
Rebecca’s father did not look at the children.
“You should’ve called first.”
“I did. You didn’t answer.”
Her mother stood behind him in the warm hallway, one hand pressed to her mouth.
Daniel, Rebecca’s older brother, watched from the stairs.
Nobody moved.
The door clicked shut.
Rebecca stared at the brass number on the house where she had grown up.
Then she called Daniel.
He answered from inside.
“Becca, it’s complicated.”
“You’re ten feet away.”
“I have my own family to think about.”
Her next call went to her sister, Claire.
“Every marriage has problems,” Claire said. “Don’t be impulsive.”
Rebecca looked at the bruises hidden beneath her wet sleeve.
“I understand.”
She ended the call, lifted the ripped bag from the driveway, and took her children’s hands.
Lily looked back at the closed door.
“Where are we going?”
Rebecca swallowed the ache in her throat.
“To survive.”
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As they walked toward the car, the porch light went dark behind them.
👉 Rebecca thought the locked door was the worst betrayal she would face that night—until Ethan revealed what he had hidden inside his blanket.
