Chapter 5 - THE CALL FROM MY FATHER
My father called me at 9:12 that night.
Not my mother.
Him.
His voice was low, careful.
“Marissa?”
“Dad. Are you alone?”
A pause.
“I’m out in the garage.”
That alone told me he knew something was wrong.
“How are you feeling?”
“Tired.”
He sounded more than tired. He sounded uncertain.
I didn’t waste time.
“Dad, do you remember signing anything last week in the study?”
There was a longer pause this time.
Then: “Your mother said Todd and I were helping update the cabin insurance.”
The cabin.
My parents had a lake cabin up north that had been in my father’s family for forty years.
“Do you remember what you signed?”
“Not clearly.”
My heart sank.
“Why not?”
He exhaled slowly. “I had one of those dizzy spells that afternoon. Your mother brought me tea. After that, things were a little... foggy.”
Tea.
I wrote that down on a notepad without even thinking.
“Did you ask questions?”
“I remember asking why there were so many pages.”
“And?”
“Your mother said Martin needed everything done together.”
Martin Calloway had told me he knew nothing about it.
“Dad,” I said carefully, “Martin wasn’t involved.”
Silence.
Then a chair creaked on the other end.
“I thought something felt off,” he admitted quietly. “Todd kept telling me to sign where the tabs were.”
“What tabs?”
“Yellow sticky markers.”
My father never used yellow tabs. My mother did.
“Dad,” I said, “I need you to listen very carefully. Do not sign anything else. Do not let Mom put anything in front of you. And don’t tell her you called me.”
His breathing changed.
“Marissa... what is this about?”
I looked out the kitchen window into the dark.
“I think Mom and Todd may have had you sign legal papers without telling you what they actually were.”
He didn’t answer right away.
Then he asked the question I had been dreading.
“Was that why Noah looked so scared today?”
My throat tightened.
“Yes.”
He was quiet for several seconds.
When he spoke again, his voice had gone rough.
“Your mother told me Noah was overtired and acting strange. She said he’d upset Lily and that was why everyone left.”
There it was.
Even now, she was rewriting the story.
“Dad, Noah saw something in the study. Mom knows he saw it. That’s why she wants him kept away.”
My father said nothing.
Then finally: “I want to see Martin tomorrow.”
Relief hit me so hard I almost cried.
“Okay.”
“I’ll ask Todd to drive me—”
“No.”
The word came out harder than I intended.
“Not Todd. I’ll come get you.”
Another long silence.
Then my father said, very quietly:
“All right.”
When the call ended, Lily stepped into the doorway.
She had heard enough from my side to understand.
“What did Grandpa say?”
I looked at her.
“He remembers just enough to be scared.”
May you like
Then I looked toward the living room again, where Noah had fallen asleep sitting up, still in that dinosaur shirt.
“And tomorrow, we find out what they made him sign.”
