Part 4 — They left the children on the floor, but the unknown millionaire did not hang up the call — my former boss suddenly turned pale

The child’s scream was Cayden’s.

Nathan rushed toward the door.

“Claire, call the police now. Have them lock all the exits.”

I tried to get out of bed, but I had no strength in my legs. A few hours earlier I had escaped death, and now my children’s voices were disappearing into the darkness again.

“Kira!” I shouted.

“Mother, I’m here!” she answered.

The door opened and Kira ran in. She was still holding the small yellow bracelet.

Cayden stood behind Claire, clutching the dinosaur to his chest.

“I saw a man by the window,” Kira said. “Then the lights went out.”

Nathan hugged the children.

“No one will touch you.”

But there was such fear in his voice that Kira immediately sensed his lie.

Claire called security. The sound of running was already heard in the hallway. The men at the door knocked again, but this time a police command sounded.

“Get on the floor! Keep your hands where they can be seen!”

The men immediately fell silent.

Nathan took out his telephone and called the lawyer.

“David, fake court representatives were about to abduct my children. I want all the documents suspended.”

The man on the other side did not answer for a long time.

“Nathan, this case is very complicated. If Leonard’s fund really exists, I cannot go against it.”

“You are my lawyer.”

“I was. From this moment, I am not.”

The call ended.

Nathan gripped the telephone so tightly that his fingers turned white.

“He abandoned you,” I said.

“Everyone abandons me,” he answered.

“No. You abandon everyone who tells you the truth.”

Those words fell heavily into the room.

The police arrested two men. They had fake badges, documents prepared in my name, and photographs of the children. Claire photographed everything while the investigators sealed the items.

An hour later Leonard’s old recording was officially transcribed.

Nathan sat in the corner of the room and, for the first time, listened to his own past through someone else’s eyes.

His voice from six years earlier sounded in the recording.

“You are approaching my family for money.”

The recording stopped.

Then my voice:

“Nathan, the children are waiting for their father.”

His voice sounded again.

“If you do not leave this house now, I will take everything from you.”

Nathan buried his head in his hands.

“Did I say this?”

“Yes.”

“Did I speak to you like that?”

“Exactly like that.”

He listened to the recording to the end. Not once did he ask for it to be turned off.

The next day the court suspended my guardianship only long enough for me to recover my health, but the children were not taken from me. No investigation was opened against Nathan, because the recordings and documents showed that he had not known his father’s lie; rather, he himself had been a victim of that lie for years.

Leonard was found two days later on the outskirts of the city, in an old warehouse. With him they found records of transfers from the fund, a fake death certificate, and dozens of letters with which he had blackmailed Nathan.

I felt no revenge against him.

Only exhaustion.

On the day I left the hospital, I found the door of our apartment open. The children’s drawings were no longer hanging on the wall. Social workers were packing things because Nathan had prepared another home.

There was an empty refrigerator in the kitchen.

On the table my old shopping list had remained. Milk, bread, bananas, peanut butter, cough medicine. The two crossed-out words were still visible.

The yellow bracelet was waiting for me on the windowsill.

It no longer had the red bead. The experts had removed the chip, but they returned the bracelet to me.

I picked it up and, for the first time, was no longer afraid.

Three weeks later we moved to a new city. Nathan bought an apartment, but put my name in the documents only after I agreed myself.

I began working at a small neighborhood library. In the morning I arranged books, at midday I read to children, and in the evening, for the first time in years, I ate peacefully.

Kira was learning to draw. Every morning Cayden stood by the window and checked whether the sky was blue enough.

One evening, during the first snow, Kira asked me:

“Mother, are we safe now?”

I sat beside her.

“Now we belong to one another. That is enough.”

Cayden rested his head on my shoulder.

“Will Father be with us too?”

The answer to that question was not simple.

Nathan came every week. He brought books for the children and groceries for me. The first time he came, he stood at the door for a long time and did not enter.

“May I?” he asked.

“Ask the children.”

Kira opened the door wide for him.

Nathan knelt and hugged them both. Then he turned toward me.

“I know that in one day I cannot become the father I should have been.”

“I am not asking you to do it in one day.”

“And you?”

“I ask nothing from you. Only do not lie to me anymore.”

He nodded.

In the following months Nathan sold part of his company and opened a free assistance center in the city for single parents. He did not name it after me. I liked that. My pain was no longer an advertisement for his generosity.

One morning, three months later, the old number called me.

Nathan’s name appeared on the screen.

“I’m listening.”

There was tension in his voice.

“Amara, I want you to come back. Not only to the children. To us. Everything will be different.”

I was standing by the window. Under the snow, the streetlights looked like small golden points.

“It may be different,” I said. “But I am not going back.”

“Because you do not love me?”

“Because now I love myself.”

He was silent for a long time.

“Can I still come to see the children?”

“This door will always be open to you if you come with the truth.”

“And for you?”

I looked at the yellow bracelet. The red bead had already been attached again. Now it hung beside the door, on a small hook where we hung the children’s hats.

“For me, the door is open only to those who do not try to open it by force.”

The call ended.

That evening Kira took off the bracelet and placed it on the table.

“You do not need this anymore, Mother.”

“Why?”

“Because now we know whom to call.”

“Whom?”

Kira smiled.

“Each other.”

Outside, the first snow was falling quietly. There was milk in the kitchen, there was bread, and bananas too. The refrigerator door closed all the way. A new list lay on the table, and every word on it was already crossed out.

I took the bracelet in my hand, went to the door, and hung it on the hook.

This time the call was not needed to save anyone.

Everyone in the house was already awake.