Chapter 3 - Thirteen Months Missing
Ethan caught Sloane's wrist an inch from Isabel's hand.
"Back up."
"You're letting a criminal search our home!"
"I'm looking at a lock on the outside of a room where our son says he was trapped. Answer the question."
"He was never trapped."
The black recorder blinked once, then died. Isabel slid it into her pocket before Sloane could grab it.
"He needs a doctor," Sloane insisted.
"He needs to feel safe," Isabel said. "Those are not the same thing."
"Where were you?" he asked quietly.
Isabel gave a bitter little laugh. "You were at the hearings."
"I was told you refused to attend the second one."
"I was sitting in county jail."
Thirteen months earlier, Isabel had been the director of an after-school program funded by the Whitlock Foundation. When nearly two hundred thousand dollars disappeared from the program's account, investigators found her name on the transfers. The same week, someone reported that she had left Caleb alone overnight while misusing prescription medicine.
She had denied it all. The court issued temporary restrictions while the investigation continued. Within days, the press had stopped using her name and started calling her the disgraced charity mother.
"I tried to call you," Isabel said. "I sent letters. My attorney filed a request to be heard. Everything came back unanswered."
"There were no letters," Ethan said.
"There were forty-three."
Sloane folded her arms. "You can't expect us to believe that."
Isabel turned on her. "I don't expect you to believe anything. I expect you to answer for what you did."
"The charges were dropped," Isabel said. "Three months ago. An independent accountant found the transfers were authorized from a device I didn't own. But the family-court order never changed, and every emergency petition got delayed."
"I didn't know," Ethan said.
"You knew enough to ask."
Caleb lifted his head. "Mommy, are you staying?"
Isabel closed her eyes. "I'm trying, sweetheart."
"Promise?"
She couldn't. The honest answer hurt too much.
A guard spoke from the doorway. "Mr. Whitlock, two officers are at the gate. Mrs. Whitlock told them there's a violation of a protective order."
Ethan looked from the recorder in Isabel's pocket to the blue room.
May you like
"I need everyone to hear this," he said. "No one speaks for Caleb except Caleb."
Then his phone lit up with a notification from the home's security system: NURSERY FOOTAGE DELETED — REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR.
