Chapter 9 - The Man at the Back Window
The message came from Nina Alvarez, who lived two houses away.
Grant called her immediately.
Nina answered on the first ring.
“I should have called the police,” she said.
“What did you see?”
“A man near the back door.”
Grant’s grip tightened around the phone.
Daisy looked up at him.
He stepped farther away so she would not hear.
“What time?”
“Around midnight.”
Nina had been walking her dog when she noticed movement behind Ethan’s house.
A man stood near the kitchen window.
He tried the back door once.
Then he looked through the glass.
Nina turned on her flashlight and shouted.
The man ran.
She assumed an adult was inside because the upstairs light was on.
She did not know Daisy was alone.
Grant closed his eyes.
The call had come at 2:07.
Daisy had heard noises downstairs before contacting him.
“What did he look like?”
Nina described a tall man in a gray hoodie.
Grant asked whether she had security cameras.
Her porch camera captured part of the sidewalk.
She checked the recording.
A dark sedan passed twice.
The second time, the man’s face was visible.
Grant asked her to save everything.
Then he returned to Daisy.
“What happened?” Ethan demanded.
Grant looked at him.
“Someone tried to enter your house while she was alone.”
Ethan staggered backward.
Lauren’s mouth opened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Grant’s control finally broke through in his voice.
“She was eight years old, frightened, and trapped in a house you deliberately left empty.”
Ethan bent forward as if struck.
Lauren shook her head repeatedly.
“We could not have known.”
“You did not need to predict a stranger,” Grant said. “You only needed to know children should not be abandoned.”
Daisy heard enough.
She pressed both hands over her ears.
Grant immediately knelt beside her.
“You are safe.”
“Did he get inside?”
“No.”
“Because Mrs. Nina saw him?”
“Yes.”
Daisy looked toward her parents.
Neither could face her.
Grant stood again.
The protective fury in his expression silenced everyone.
May you like
“This is no longer about a vacation.”
👉 Ethan and Lauren had treated Daisy’s isolation as discipline—but one locked door had been the only thing separating her from disaster.
