“Daddy isn’t here.”
“Where is he?”
“Far.”
That didn’t tell me much.
I reached for my phone.
Wren immediately climbed down from her chair.
“No!”
Her face changed completely.
“No police!”
I froze.
“I didn’t say I was calling the police.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“He said they’ll take us away.”
“Who said that?”
Wren pointed toward the wall separating my house from theirs.
“Him.”
Before I could ask anything else, a door slammed next door.
Both children dropped to the floor.
A man’s voice carried from outside.
“Wren!”
Another shout.
“Ivy!”
The girls scrambled beneath my kitchen table.
I walked to the window and carefully moved the curtain aside.
The man from the driveway stood on his front porch.
He looked furious.
He hurried down the steps and checked behind a bush, then walked around the side of his house.
A minute later, he appeared near the curb.
Near my trash bin.
I stepped away from the window.
Three hard knocks hit my front door.
Ivy whimpered.
I crouched beside the twins.
“Stay here.”
