Chapter 1
I came home two days early and found my eight-month-pregnant wife tied inside a dog kennel.
For one terrible second, I could not move.
Emily was curled on the dirty metal floor in our backyard. A rope bound her wrists. Her face was wet with tears, and one side of her cheek was swollen.
My mother, Diane, stood outside the kennel with her arms folded.
My younger brother Ryan held the other end of the rope.
“What did you do?” I shouted.
Ryan turned toward me.
The color disappeared from his face.
“You weren’t supposed to be home until Friday.”
I dropped my suitcase and ran across the yard.
Emily lifted her head.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
My mother stepped between us.
“She needed to learn her place.”
I stared at her.
“What are you talking about?”
“She has been poisoning you against this family,” Diane snapped. “She thinks carrying your baby makes her important.”
Emily cried out as she tried to sit up.
I shoved past my mother and reached the kennel.
The door was secured with a padlock.
“Give me the key.”
Diane did not move.
“Mom, give me the key!”
“She owes us an apology first.”
My hands started shaking.
Emily was eight months pregnant. It was nearly ninety degrees outside. There was no water inside the kennel.
Then I saw blood on the lower part of her dress.
Something inside me broke.
I grabbed the bolt cutters from the shed and cut through the lock.
Diane screamed at me to stop.
I ripped open the door and crawled inside.
Emily collapsed against my chest.
“My stomach hurts,” she whispered. “They pushed me down.”
I looked at Ryan.
He would not meet my eyes.
I untied the rope around Emily’s wrists and called an ambulance.
“What happened?” the dispatcher asked.
“My wife is pregnant, injured, and bleeding. My mother and brother attacked her.”
Diane grabbed my shoulder.
“How dare you accuse your own family?”
I turned slowly.
“You tied my wife inside a cage.”
“She slapped me,” Diane said. “We were defending ourselves.”
Emily looked up from my arms.
“I never touched her.”
Diane suddenly raised her hand and lunged toward Emily.
I caught her wrist before she could strike.
“Do not touch my wife again.”
Ryan rushed at me from behind.
I turned and shoved him away.
He stumbled into the kennel door.
For once, he looked afraid of me.
I stood and pointed inside.
“Both of you. Get in.”
Diane laughed.
“You have lost your mind.”
I picked up the rope Ryan had used on Emily.
His expression changed.
“Daniel, calm down.”
“Inside.”
Neither of them moved.
Then the sound of sirens rose in the distance.
Ryan tried to run toward the side gate.
I caught his shirt and forced him back.
Diane swung at me, but I blocked her and pushed her into the kennel.
Ryan followed when I threatened to hold him down until the police arrived.
I slammed the metal door and fastened it with a spare lock.
They began screaming immediately.
“You cannot do this to your mother!” Diane shouted.
I knelt beside Emily and wrapped my jacket around her.
“You caged my pregnant wife,” I said. “Now wait for the police exactly where you left her.”
The paramedics rushed through the gate.
They placed Emily on a stretcher and checked the baby’s heartbeat.
One paramedic’s expression became serious.
“We need to move now.”
I held Emily’s hand as they carried her toward the ambulance.
Behind us, Diane and Ryan begged me to release them.
When the officers arrived, my mother immediately changed her voice.
“My son attacked us,” she cried. “His wife is unstable.”
One officer looked at me.
I pointed toward the security camera above the back door.
“It recorded everything.”
Ryan stopped shouting.
Diane’s face went still.
The officer reviewed the footage on my phone.
He watched Ryan drag Emily across the yard.
He watched Diane slap her.
He watched them tie her hands and force her into the kennel.
Then he looked at them with disgust.
I handed him the key.
“Take them out,” I said. “And put them in real cages.”
The officer opened the kennel.
Ryan stepped out first, trembling.
As another officer placed handcuffs around Diane’s wrists, she stared at me.
“This is not over,” she said.
I climbed into the ambulance beside Emily.
May you like
“No,” I answered. “It is just beginning.”
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