Chapter 2 - What the Night Log Kept
My fingers tightened around the thin piece of paper.
Kendra was still wiping away her tears.
She hadn't seen the receipt yet.
“Marcus, give me the locket,” she said softly.
“We can talk about his discipline later.”
I kept the receipt tucked inside my palm.
“Ms. Vance,” I said, my voice dangerously calm.
“I think we need to take a break.”
Ms. Vance looked closely at my face.
She recognized the sudden shift in the air.
“I will wait downstairs in my vehicle,” she said.
“I expect a full explanation before I leave.”
She walked down the hallway, her footsteps echoing.
Kendra turned to me, her hand extending.
“Marcus, please.”
“He is manipulating you.”
“He hates that I’m in this house.”
Toby stayed on his knees, staring at the floorboards.
He looked small, fragile, and exhausted.
I looked down at the receipt in my hand.
The pawn shop was called City Gold Exchange.
The signature at the bottom was clearly Kendra’s elegant cursive.
The items listed included a vintage gold band.
My mother’s ring.
The ring I had stored in the master bedroom safe.
A safe only Kendra and I had the combination to.
“Chloe,” I called down the hall.
“Go play in the backyard for a few minutes.”
Chloe grumbled but ran down the back stairs.
I shut Toby’s bedroom door.
The lock clicked into place.
Kendra’s expression hardened slightly.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I held out the tiny slip of paper.
She looked down at it.
Her breath caught in her throat.
The color left her face entirely this time.
“Where did you get this?” she whispered.
“Toby didn't steal your locket,” I said.
“He was hiding this paper from you.”
Kendra swallowed hard, her eyes darting toward the window.
“I can explain that,” she said quickly.
“That was from months ago.”
“I had to clear some old jewelry from my previous marriage.”
“Read the date, Kendra,” I said.
“It was three days ago.”
“The day my mother’s ring went missing.”
Kendra took a step backward toward the door.
“You’re taking his side over mine?”
“A seven-year-old child who breaks things?”
“He is disturbed, Marcus!”
“He needs professional help!”
Toby flinched at the word 'disturbed.'
He curled his legs into his chest.
I felt a sudden, burning rage rising in my chest.
Not the explosive kind.
The cold, precise kind.
“Get out of his room,” I said.
“Marcus—”
“Get out.”
She glared at me for one long, silent second.
Then she turned and marched down the hall.
I knelt beside Toby.
I pulled him into my arms.
He was trembling so hard his teeth clicked.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” I whispered into his hair.
“I’m so sorry I didn't see.”
Toby held my shirt tightly.
“She hurt my arm when I tried to take the paper,” he whispered.
“She told me if I said anything, she would send me away.”
“She said the court lady would take me to a home.”
My blood ran cold.
The thumbprint bruise on his wrist.
It hadn't come from a bicycle fall.
It had come from her holding him down.
“She won't take you anywhere,” I promised.
“I swear to you.”
I stood up and picked him up in my arms.
We walked downstairs.
Kendra was in the kitchen, packing a small bag.
Her fake softness had completely vanished.
She looked at me with cold, calculating eyes.
“If you accuse me of anything, Marcus, I will call my lawyer,” she said.
“I am your legal wife.”
“I have rights to this house.”
“And I have rights to half of your business assets.”
She pulled out her phone.
“I will tell the court investigator that you are unstable.”
“That you made a hostile environment for my daughter.”
She was playing the system.
She had planned this out carefully from the beginning.
I looked at her, realizing the terrible truth.
She hadn't married me because she loved me.
She had married me because my business was profitable.
And because I was a grieving widower who was too tired to notice the small details.
“Leave,” I said.
“Not without my daughter,” she said.
She opened the back door and called Chloe inside.
Chloe looked confused, holding her dollhouse tightly.
“Mommy, why are you crying?” Chloe asked.
“Because Marcus doesn't want us here anymore,” Kendra said smoothly.
She was already painting herself as the victim.
She led Chloe out to her car.
Before she pulled out of the driveway, she rolled down her window.
“You’ll hear from my lawyer by morning, Marcus,” she yelled.
“You just destroyed this family.”
She drove away, kicking up clouds of gravel.
Ms. Vance was standing by her car at the end of the driveway.
She had seen the whole thing.
She walked slowly back up to the porch.
“Mr. Hayes,” Ms. Vance said grimly.
“This situation is extremely volatile.”
“I need to submit a preliminary report to the judge by five o’clock.”
“If there is emotional abuse in this home, Toby cannot stay here during the investigation.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?” I gasped.
“I am his father!”
“I know,” Ms. Vance said softly.
“But until the state determines who is at fault, protective custody is standard protocol.”
“Unless you have definitive proof of her misconduct today.”
The world seemed to spin beneath my feet.
I was going to lose my son.
Because I had let a stranger into our lives.
Because I had been too busy working to pay attention.
Toby looked up at me, his eyes wide with terror.
“Dad?” he whimpered.
I looked around the front yard, desperate.
My eyes landed on the security system camera above the garage.
I had installed it two years ago.
Kendra had told me last month that it was broken.
She said the wiring was fried.
I had believed her.
I ran into the garage and pulled down the ladder to the attic crawlspace.
Ms. Vance followed me closely.
I reached the main control box near the rafters.
The green light on the hard drive was still blinking softly.
It wasn't broken.
She had simply unplugged the monitor in the hallway.
My hands shook as I plugged the monitor cable back into the box.
The screen flickered to life.
A menu appeared showing three months of recorded video.
I scrolled back to yesterday afternoon.
3:14 PM.
The video showed the front porch.
Toby was sitting on the steps, holding his mother’s locket.
Kendra walked out of the house.
She grabbed him by the arm, twisting his wrist roughly.
She snatched the locket from his fingers.
Toby was crying, reaching up for it.
She leaned down, her face inches from his.
Her mouth moved angrily.
Then she shoved him backward onto the wooden steps.
He fell hard against the porch rail.
Ms. Vance stood behind me in total silence.
She watched the entire sequence play out on the small screen.
Her jaw was tight.
Her hands were shaking as she pulled out her phone.
“Mr. Hayes,” she said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp tone.
May you like
“Cancel your evening.”
“I am calling the legal authorities right now.”
