Page 40 of Lies in Promises
I should let the house be and go to the people handling the case, but something in me is screaming I have to do this one on my own.
Something was missed. Something was overlooked.
Ignoring all the signs to keep out of the properties, I walk through the main gate to the house I called home for almost ten years.
I will find Marisela. I know I will.
I slide the key into the lock and open the door, removing the tape coverings as I do. It’s as I push the door open that my mind goes back to the last day I saw her. Before I left, a look came across her face, one I couldn’t decipher. I didn’t think anything of it, but now, I can’t help but wonder.
Was she trying to tell me something with that look? Did she know something was coming?
Questions flow through my mind as I walk deeper into the house. It’s when I’m in the living room that I feel something, but before I feel pain or even question it…everything goes dark.
CHAPTER 14
BENNETT
THREE WEEKS LATER
I’m sitting on the couch, watching Grayson play with the baby. Both of them are laughing and doing everything kids should be doing. Watching them play like this and hearing them fill the house with laughter is both a relief and heartbreaking.
The world they know has crumbled around them, and they aren’t the wiser.
Elliot and Samantha are, though. Both of them have been aware of what has been going on since before their dad left.
As the kids play in front of me, my mind goes to the night my brother left.
I couldn’t watch him walk the house again, so I said what I needed to and headed upstairs.
When I got to the second floor, I hear small footsteps pattering against the floor.All the kids were supposed to be asleep, but it turned out, two were wide awake. I caught Samantha running into Elliott’s room and closed the door behind her. I saw her, but she doesn’t see me.
Without any hesitation, I walked over to the room and stood by the door for a minute.
Elliot was reassuring his sister, telling her everything was going to be okay, that their dad would come back.
He was code-switching every few words, but I was able to understand everything.
I heard footsteps downstairs, something being said, but I couldn’t make out the words. Robert was leaving, I knew that much.
Slowly, I opened the bedroom door, about to tell the kids they should go to sleep, when I heard the door downstairs open. Right away, the kids were on alert, and my eyes moved to the two of them at the window.
They both looking out the glass, Elliot holding tight to his little sister’s hand, and they watched as their dad left, the same way I watched him leave all those years ago.
It broke my heart watching them.
I didn’t want to take that moment away from them, so I closed the door just as quietly as I opened it, and I went to my old childhood room.
The two kids have been quiet since. More Elliot than Samantha, but both are still taking their dad being gone hard.
My niece has warmed up to me a bit, even asking if I could go with her outside when she needs a break from her brothers. I see that as a good sign.
As the days go on with the four of them, it has gotten slightly easier, but I very much feel like a fish out of water.
I don’t know how to talk to kids. I never had to account for anyone else’s life but my own. A lot of this is new for me.
Sure, Henry is here, and I can possibly hand over all the duties to him, but there is a very big part of me that feels like I have to at least try with these kids. Their mom and dad aren’t here right now, and who knows how long it will be that way. Henry could tell me he is going to retire tomorrow, and I will be on my own. I’m all they have right now, and I have to do everything in my power to give them everything they need, be everything they need.
The baby takes something away from Grayson with a laugh, and I’m brought back to the present, but only for a second.
