Chapter 2: The Name On The Screen
The room went silent.
Noah.
Ryan's younger brother.
He hadn't spoken to Diane in three years.
None of us knew why.
Ryan's face had gone completely white.
"Mom." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"What did you do to Noah?"
Diane straightened herself.
"That boy was troubled.
Everything that happened with him was his own fault."
"He was eleven years old." Ryan's hands were shaking now.
"He was eleven when he stopped coming home."
Diane said nothing.
I turned back to Lily.
She was watching Diane with the kind of stillness that broke my heart — the stillness of a child who has learned that screaming doesn't help.
"Sweetheart," I said softly.
"You're safe.
I'm right here."
Lily's fingers tightened around mine.
"She has a box," Lily whispered.
"Under her bed.
She said if I ever looked inside it, something bad would happen to you."
Ryan was already moving toward the door.
Diane's composure finally cracked.
"Ryan, don't you dare — that is my home and you have no right —"
He stopped.
Turned slowly.
"Were you ever going to tell me what you did to my brother?"
The doctor quietly asked Diane to step outside.
She refused.
And that was when Ryan's phone rang.
May you like
The name on the screen made him go completely still.
It was Noah.
