Chapter 6 - The Woman on the Porch
At 1:14 a.m., the doorbell camera woke me with an alert. Mom stood on our porch in her hotel slippers, the porch light making her face look pale and strange.
"Daniel," she called into the camera. "Open up. We need to talk like adults."
I watched from the bedroom while Emily sat awake beside her packed suitcase. "Don't open it," she said.
"I won't."
Mom knocked harder. "You can't throw your mother into the street because your wife is sensitive."
I used the speaker. "Go back to the hotel."
"Your father is crying. Is that what you wanted?"
"Dad can call me himself."
She leaned toward the camera, her voice suddenly soft. "Daniel, sweetheart, I know you don't mean this. She's put ideas in your head."
For one second I felt twelve again, the kid who apologized whenever Mom stopped speaking to him. I almost told her we could work something out. Instead, I said, "You assaulted Emily. You aren't coming inside."
Mom's softness vanished. She dug a key out of her purse and pushed it into the lock. The deadbolt turned. Only the security chain stopped the door from opening fully.
Emily heard the metal rattle and made a sound I won't forget.
"I'm calling the police if you don't leave," I said.
"Call them! Tell them your own mother came to get her medication."
"You took your medication bag with you. I packed it."
Mom slammed the door closed, then smiled at the camera as if she'd just thought of something clever. "You have no idea what people are going to think of your wife by morning."
She drove away. I saved the clip and emailed it to myself. Emily watched me do it, then pulled her blanket tight around her knees.
"I should've listened to you when she took that key," I said.
"You should've listened when I said she scared me."
At seven, we drove to urgent care. A doctor examined the sore spot on Emily's scalp, documented the redness, and asked whether she felt safe at home. Emily answered before I could.
"Not yet."
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I scheduled a locksmith for nine. While we waited at the clinic, my phone buzzed with a family group message from Mom: PRAY FOR DANIEL. HIS WIFE ATTACKED ME AND NOW HE'S NOT THINKING CLEARLY.
Then a second message arrived: I HAVE PROOF.
