Chapter 3 - Mark Could Not Be Reached
Officer Ruiz asked for Mark’s phone number.
Peter called first.
No answer.
He tried again.
Straight to voicemail.
“Where does your brother work?” Ruiz asked.
“A construction company outside town.”
“Is he usually gone during the day?”
“Sometimes for several days.”
Drew’s eyes opened.
“He thinks we go to Grandma’s.”
Peter looked at him.
“What?”
Drew swallowed.
“When Daddy leaves, she tells him we’re staying with her mother.”
Vanessa’s mother lived three hours away.
Peter had never checked.
Neither had Mark.
Ruiz asked Drew whether Vanessa was at the house now.
The boy’s breathing sped up.
“She went to get groceries.”
“That’s when you left?”
Drew nodded.
“How did you get out?”
He looked down at his injured leg.
“The little window.”
Peter knew the house.
There was one narrow basement window near the side yard.
It had been painted shut years ago.
Ruiz made a note.
“Did you break it?”
Drew shook his head.
“It was already cracked.”
Lily whispered, “Drew pushed it.”
Peter imagined the boy forcing a damaged window open while standing on an injured leg.
“How did Lily get through?”
“I lifted her.”
“And then?”
“I carried her.”
All seven blocks.
Peter looked away before the children saw his face.
Officer Ruiz stood.
“We need to secure that house.”
He radioed for additional units.
The paramedics prepared to transport both children to the hospital.
Peter climbed into the ambulance with them.
As the doors closed, he saw two patrol cars turn toward Vanessa’s street.
Then his phone rang.
Mark.
Peter answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“At work. Why?”
“Your kids are in an ambulance.”
Silence.
“What happened?”
Peter looked at Drew.
The boy was fighting to stay awake.
“You tell me, Mark. Why did your son just carry Lily seven blocks with an untreated injury?”
Mark’s breathing changed.
“Where’s Vanessa?”
“That’s what the police are about to find out.”
Mark said one sentence that made Peter’s anger explode.
“Don’t overreact. Drew lies.”
Peter nearly crushed the phone in his hand.
“He said she locked them downstairs again.”
Mark did not answer.
Not because he was shocked.
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Because part of him had heard something like this before.
👉 Mark had defended Vanessa for years—but his silence revealed that this was not the first warning.
