Chapter 3 - Every Letter Had Been HiddenJames sat on the basement steps with Emily wrapped in a clean blanket.
He had changed her out of the wet clothes using the emergency clothing he always kept in his travel bag.
He wanted to leave immediately.
He also needed to understand how deep this went.
He called the police first.
Then he called for medical help.
Linda protested both decisions.
“You don’t need to turn this into a spectacle.”
James ignored her.
Emily sat close enough that their shoulders touched.
Rex lay across her feet.
The dog had refused to leave her side.
James picked up another envelope.
March 18.
He remembered writing it.
He had included a drawing of a ridiculous three-legged camel one of his buddies had made because Emily loved weird animals.
She had never seen it.
April 2.
Still sealed.
April 19.
Still sealed.
May.
June.
July.
A whole year of his voice hidden in a basement.
James swallowed hard.
“Why?”
Linda stood at the top of the stairs.
“She got too emotional after your letters.”
James looked up.
“So you hid them?”
“She cried.”
“She missed her father.”
“It disrupted the house.”
James laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“The house.”
Linda’s eyes narrowed.
“You think everything is simple because you just came back.”
James held up an envelope.
“You told me she read these.”
“She knew you loved her.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
James stood.
“You told me during every call that Emily was doing great.”
“She was.”
Emily whispered, “No.”
Linda snapped her head toward her.
James rose immediately.
Emily continued before he could stop her.
“She made me stand off camera.”
James froze.
“What?”
Emily looked at him.
“On video calls.”
James remembered.
Linda often said Emily was at a friend’s house, doing homework, showering, asleep, or not feeling well.
He had spoken directly to his daughter far less than he wanted.
And when Emily did appear, Linda was almost always nearby.
“What do you mean, stand off camera?”
Emily picked at the edge of the blanket.
“Aunt Linda told me what to say.”
James sat beside her again.
“What did she tell you?”
“That school was good. That I liked the basement. That I wasn’t lonely.”
James felt sick.
“You told me you were sleeping upstairs.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
He took her hand.
“You’re not in trouble.”
“She said if I told you the truth, you’d get distracted and something bad might happen to you.”
James stared at Linda.
Linda’s face had gone rigid.
“That is not what I said.”
Emily looked down.
“She said soldiers die when their families make them worry.”
James stood so quickly Rex lifted his head.
Linda backed away from the stairs.
“You manipulated my daughter into lying to me by telling her she could get me killed?”
Linda shook her head.
“She misunderstood.”
“How many things did she misunderstand, Linda?”
No answer.
James pointed toward the basement mattress.
“That?”
Silence.
“The lock?”
Silence.
“The letters?”
Silence.
“The kennel?”
Linda’s face tightened.
“She needed discipline.”
James walked up the stairs.
Roy stepped between them.
“You need to cool off.”
James stopped inches away.
“I need you out of my way.”
“You’re acting unstable.”
James looked at Roy.
Something about the phrase bothered him.
Not because it was insulting.
Because Roy said it too carefully.
Almost rehearsed.
Before James could respond, sirens sounded outside.
Linda’s face changed.
For one second, there was panic.
Then it vanished.
By the time two officers entered the backyard, Linda was crying.
James watched in disbelief.
Her shoulders trembled.
Her hands shook.
She suddenly looked like a frightened older woman caught in a family misunderstanding.
“Thank God you’re here,” she told the officers.
James stared.
Linda pointed at him.
“My nephew just returned from deployment, and he’s extremely agitated.”
One officer looked toward James.
Then Emily.
Then the kennel.
The chain remained inside.
The garden hose lay across the grass.
The officer’s expression changed.
Linda kept talking.
“We were only trying to manage a very troubled child.”
Emily moved closer to James.
The second officer crouched slightly.
“Emily, are you hurt?”
Emily shook her head.
“Just cold.”
James’s jaw clenched.
The officer noticed the basement door.
“What happened here?”
Linda rushed to explain.
James interrupted.
“Ask my daughter.”
Linda turned sharply.
“James—”
“No.”
He looked down at Emily.
“You can tell them anything you want. I’m right here.”
Emily looked toward Linda.
Fear passed over her face.
Then she looked at her father.
“They put me in the kennel because I took bread.”
The room went still.
The first officer frowned.
“Bread?”
Emily nodded.
“I was hungry.”
Linda immediately said, “That is completely misleading.”
Emily continued.
“Uncle Roy said if I acted like a dog, I could eat like one.”
James’s hands curled into fists.
Roy turned red.
“I never said that.”
Emily looked at him.
“You did.”
The officer stood.
“Sir, I need you to step outside.”
Roy began arguing.
James barely heard him.
A paramedic entered and began examining Emily.
James stayed beside her.
While everyone moved around the room, Denise quietly slipped toward the stairs.
James noticed.
She was carrying something.
A small folder.
“Denise.”
She stopped.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.”
James walked toward her.
“Give it to me.”
Linda shouted, “Don’t!”
Everyone turned.
Denise froze.
James took the folder from her hands.
Inside were photocopies of official-looking documents.
One page had James’s name.
Another had Emily’s.
Across the top were the words:
TEMPORARY GUARDIANSHIP AUTHORIZATION.
James scanned the signature.
It looked exactly like his.
May you like
There was only one problem.
He had never signed it.
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