Chapter 4 - Anna Had Been Trying to Leave for Eleven Months
Anna’s husband was Matthew Foster.
Not Evan.
Matthew was thirty-six, regional vice president for a medical-device company, clean record, expensive suits, church on Sundays, coached youth baseball when his schedule allowed.
The kind of man people described as dependable.
Anna had left him eleven months earlier.
Not after one dramatic assault.
After years of smaller things that became impossible to explain individually.
Passwords he insisted married people should share.
Location tracking.
Money transferred without discussion.
Friends he called bad influences.
Appointments he rescheduled for her.
Arguments followed by apologies so detailed that Anna ended up comforting him.
When Lily became old enough to notice, Matthew changed tactics.
He rarely shouted in front of her.
Instead:
“Mommy is overwhelmed.”
“Mommy gets confused when she’s anxious.”
“Let’s not upset Mommy.”
Anna began doubting herself.
Then Matthew used Lily’s deafness against her.
He disliked ASL.
Not publicly.
Publicly, he praised accessibility.
At home he repeatedly pushed Lily to lip-read and speak.
“You’re letting her hide inside the disability.”
Anna disagreed.
Their worst argument happened when Matthew refused to allow an interpreter at a school meeting because:
“She has parents. Why pay somebody else?”
Anna took Lily and Ben to her sister’s house the next morning.
Later, with legal help, she obtained temporary custody arrangements and a protective order after evidence of stalking and threats emerged.
Matthew received supervised parenting time while the case progressed.
He did not like being supervised.
His mother, Judith Foster, liked it even less.
Judith considered Anna dramatic.
Overprotective.
Vindictive.
“She’s weaponizing the children because her marriage failed.”
That sentence became family doctrine.
Matthew began telling people Anna intended to disappear with the children.
In reality, Anna remained in the same county.
Followed court orders.
Used attorneys.
Documented exchanges.
Then three weeks before Walmart, Matthew violated the protective order.
He appeared outside Lily’s school.
Did not approach.
Just stood across the street.
Anna reported it.
Matthew claimed coincidence.
Two days later, Judith called.
“You’re destroying my son.”
Anna hung up.
Then strange things began happening.
A car followed her from the grocery store.
Someone contacted Lily’s school claiming an aunt would begin picking her up.
A man called Anna’s landlord asking whether she planned to move.
Her attorney told her to strengthen her safety plan.
That plan included a strange instruction for Lily.
If Mom ever says:
Find the wolves
look for a specific patch.
May you like
Iron Howl.
At the time, Anna prayed her daughter would never need to understand why.
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