Chapter 4: Out of the House
I did not leave the girls in the living room alone.
I kept them against me while I dialed. First the pediatric urgent care that stayed open late. Then a number I had not needed before—an attorney who handled emergency family matters. I gave only the necessary facts: visible injuries on both children, a locked storage room, a key that had fallen from my wife’s pocket, and the fact that I was removing the children from the house immediately.
Vanessa stayed in the kitchen doorway. She tried once to speak over me. I told her that any further approach to the girls would be treated as interference. She stopped moving.
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Lily refused to let go of Hena. Hena refused to look at the hallway that led toward the back of the house. I carried both of them to the car still wearing the clothes they had on. No packing. No discussion. The silver key stayed in my pocket.
At the clinic the nurse took one look at Lily’s cheek and Hena’s scalp and moved us into a private room without delay. I answered questions. The girls answered what they could. Photographs were taken under proper light. The word “storage room” entered the notes exactly as Lily had said it.
