Chapter 6
My shift at the hospital was a blur.
I treated a man with a broken leg from a car accident.
A little girl with a fever that spiked to 104.
An elderly woman whose heart was failing.
All the while, my mind was at home.
With Noah.
With Buddy.
With Diane.
I checked my phone every ten minutes.
No calls.
No texts.
That should have been a good sign.
But it wasn’t.
With Diane, silence meant she was planning.
At three o’clock, I called the house.
Diane answered on the first ring.
“Hello?”
“Where’s Noah?”
“At the park. With Ryan. They’re playing soccer. Father and son bonding time. It’s beautiful out.”
“Where’s Buddy?”
A pause.
“Outside, I assume. Where he belongs.”
“Diane, I swear—”
“Relax, Emma. The dog is fine. He’s in the backyard. Ryan built that lovely fence, remember? He can’t get out. No one can get in. Everyone is safe. Everyone is happy. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Put Noah on the phone when he gets back.”
“I’ll tell him you called. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a roast in the oven.”
She hung up.
I stared at the phone.
Something was wrong.
I could feel it in my bones.
I told my supervisor I had a family emergency.
I left an hour early.
I drove home as fast as the speed limit allowed.
Faster, in some places.
When I turned onto our street, I saw the police cars first.
Two of them.
Lights flashing.
Parked in front of our house.
My blood turned to ice.
I parked in the middle of the street.
Didn’t care about the cars behind me.
I ran to the front door.
It was open.
I heard voices inside.
Crying.
A woman’s voice.
Diane.
She was sobbing.
Then a man’s voice.
Calm.
Professional.
A police officer.
I burst into the living room.
Ryan was sitting on the couch.
His head in his hands.
Diane was in the armchair.
Her face was streaked with tears.
Her left arm was red.
Two uniformed officers stood by the fireplace.
And Noah…
Noah was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs.
Buddy was in his lap.
His whole body was shaking.
An officer was kneeling in front of him.
Talking softly.
“Noah!” I ran to him.
He looked up.
His eyes were swollen.
“Mommy!”
I dropped to my knees and held him.
He clung to me like I was the only solid thing in the world.
“What happened? Baby, what happened?”
One of the officers stood up.
“Ma’am, I’m Officer Carter. Are you Emma Carter?”
“Yes. I’m his mother. What’s going on?”
“We received a 911 call from this address about forty minutes ago. A domestic disturbance. The caller reported that a child had attacked an elderly woman.”
I stared.
“Noah?”
The officer nodded at Diane.
“Mrs. Carter—your mother-in-law—says the boy pushed her down the stairs. She says she tried to stop him from hurting the dog, and he became violent.”
I looked at Diane.
She was holding her arm.
Sobbing into a tissue.
“He’s been so angry lately,” she wailed. “So much hostility. I think the dog is making him aggressive. I just tried to take the animal outside for his own good, and he… he snapped. He shoved me as hard as he could. I fell all the way down. I thought I was going to die.”
Ryan looked up.
His face was ashen.
“I was in the garage, Emma. Building the dog house. I heard screaming. I ran in. Mom was at the bottom of the stairs. Noah was standing at the top with Buddy. I… I don’t know what happened.”
I looked at Noah.
“Baby, look at me. Did you push Grandma?”
He shook his head violently.
“No! I didn’t! She was hurting Buddy! She had his leash and she was dragging him to the door! I tried to stop her! I pulled on her shirt and she fell! I didn’t push her! I swear I didn’t!”
Diane cried harder.
“He’s lying. The boy is lying. He’s been lying more and more since that dog came into our lives. He needs help. Serious help. Before he hurts someone worse.”
The officer looked at me.
“Ma’am, we’re going to need to take statements from everyone. And we should probably have the boy looked at by child protective services. Just as a precaution.”
Child protective services.
The words hit me like a punch.
If they thought Noah was violent…
If they thought we couldn’t control him…
They could take him away.
Diane knew that.
I saw it in her eyes.
Beneath the tears.
May you like
Beneath the act.
She was winning.
