Chapter 8 - The Morning They Chose to Wait
Hunter woke before sunrise.
The room seemed to tilt whenever he opened his eyes.
His head hurt.
His left arm had turned dark with bruising where Mason had grabbed him.
Rachel sat nearby holding a damp cloth.
“Mom,” Hunter whispered.
“She’s coming home.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Call her.”
Rachel looked toward the staircase.
Diane and Mason were arguing in the kitchen.
“We should have taken him last night,” Diane whispered.
“And told the police what?” Mason replied. “That you let a restrained parent into the house?”
“He looks worse.”
“He needs rest.”
“He threw up.”
“Children throw up.”
Rachel heard enough.
She carried Hunter upstairs.
“We’re going to urgent care.”
Mason blocked the front door.
“No.”
“Move.”
“He has bruises.”
“Because you hurt him.”
“It was an accident.”
Rachel stared at him.
“You dragged him from the chair.”
Diane stepped between them.
“If we go now, we lose everything.”
Rachel looked at her mother in disbelief.
“A child may have a brain injury.”
“He’s awake.”
Hunter tried to stand.
His knees folded.
Rachel caught him.
That should have ended the argument.
Instead, Mason suggested a story.
Hunter had fallen from a swing at the park.
They would wait until the bruising looked older.
Then they could seek treatment without questions.
Rachel called him insane.
Diane remained silent.
That silence decided everything.
Mason took Hunter’s tablet, smartwatch, and backpack.
He placed them inside a locked bedroom.
“No calls,” he said.
Rachel stayed beside Hunter while he drifted in and out of sleep.
At noon, Abigail’s flight was canceled again.
She called Diane from the airport.
This time, Diane allowed Hunter to speak for ten seconds.
“Hi, baby,” Abigail said. “I’m trying to get home.”
Hunter closed his eyes.
“Mason’s—”
Diane ended the call.
She immediately texted Abigail.
The connection dropped. He misses you and is being emotional.
Abigail stared at the unfinished word.
Mason’s.
Not Mason.
Mason’s here.
She knew what Hunter had been trying to say.
Abigail left the airport line and called Detective Richards, the officer who had handled Mason’s previous stalking complaint.
“I believe my son is in that house with his father.”
Richards asked one question.
“Do you have proof?”
“No.”
May you like
“Then we’ll find it.”
👉 As Detective Richards drove toward Diane’s house, Mason was already preparing to move Hunter somewhere no officer would think to search.
