Chapter 2 - What Happened When Daddy Called
I carried both children upstairs.
Vanessa followed.
“Daniel, you’re scaring them.”
I turned so sharply she stopped.
“I’m scaring them?”
She folded her arms.
“You came charging in furious. Children absorb that.”
Ethan flinched when she spoke.
That answered everything.
I took them into the nursery and shut the door behind us.
Sophie would not let go of my shirt.
Ethan kept looking toward the hallway.
I sat on the floor.
“Buddy, look at Daddy.”
His eyes finally met mine.
“You’re safe.”
He whispered, “Daddy gone?”
“No.”
“Plane?”
“No more plane tonight.”
He relaxed slightly.
Then I asked the question I was afraid to ask.
“What happens when Daddy calls?”
Ethan looked at Sophie.
His lower lip trembled.
“Smile.”
My stomach tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“Vanessa says smile.”
Whenever I video-called from hotels, both children were usually sitting neatly beside Vanessa.
Clean.
Quiet.
Smiling.
I had thought it meant they were adjusting well to their new stepmother.
Now Ethan explained in broken toddler phrases that Vanessa would tell them not to cry while I was on the phone.
If they did?
“Bad after.”
I closed my eyes.
Sophie started crying again.
Vanessa knocked.
“Daniel, can we please talk like adults?”
I opened the door but blocked her from entering.
She lowered her voice.
“Ethan is eighteen months old. You cannot treat everything he says like sworn testimony.”
“I watched you raise a strap over him.”
“You saw two seconds.”
“I saw enough.”
Her eyes hardened.
Then she changed tactics.
“I’ve been raising your children while you travel constantly. Where were you when Sophie had a fever? Where were you when Ethan screamed for three hours?”
The accusation landed because there was truth buried inside it.
I traveled too much.
After my first wife, Claire, died, I had thrown myself into work.
Vanessa entered our lives eleven months later.
She was patient.
Helpful.
Wonderful in front of me.
I married her believing my children needed stability.
Maybe what I really wanted was someone to rescue me from how overwhelmed I felt.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“You left me here to handle everything.”
I looked at Ethan’s face.
“That didn’t give you permission to hurt them.”
Her eyes flickered.
Then she said something strange.
“You should be more concerned about what Claire left behind than about a stupid strap.”
I stared at her.
“What did you just say?”
Vanessa immediately realized she had gone too far.
“Nothing.”
May you like
But Claire had been dead for almost two years.
And Vanessa had just connected my late wife to something happening inside this house.
