Daniel jumped out, fury blazing.
“You kidnapped my children?” he shouted. “Let them go!”
He grabbed her arm.
“How much were you planning to ask for ransom?”
“Look at Liam!” she screamed.
She pulled off the tiny mitten she had wrapped around the baby’s hand.
Daniel froze.
Blisters.
Raw chemical burns.
White, peeling skin.
His phone nearly slipped from his hand.
“What… what is this?”
“What your mother has been doing for months.”
Elena dumped her bag onto the pavement: diapers, formula, burn ointment she had paid for with her own wages, and a bottle of bleach she had taken from the nursery.
“Smell it.”
He opened it and recoiled, coughing.
One by one, he examined his children under the headlights. More marks. Faint scars. The chemical scent clinging to their skin.
He dropped to his knees.
“Oh my God… what have I done?”
His phone was still connected to 911.
“Sir, units are on the way,” the dispatcher said.
Daniel swallowed hard.
“Cancel it,” he said quietly. “False alarm.”
He hung up.
And for the first time, he truly saw Elena.
Her bleeding feet.
Her cracked hands.
The dark circles under her eyes.
And the fierce, protective love burning in her expression.