For the first time that night, the corner of Grace’s mouth moved.
Emma still watched the hallway.
Every time a door opened, her spine stiffened.
Daniel noticed the pattern.
“You expecting someone?” he asked gently.
She looked toward Claire before answering.
“Dad finds us.”
“Has he found you before?”
Emma nodded.
Daniel did not push further.
Claire returned to the desk with the folder and began checking the existing record against what the girls had said.
Daniel could see only the edges of forms and dates.
He deliberately looked away from details that were not his to read.
But he saw enough to understand why Claire’s expression was growing more serious.
There had been previous county involvement.
There had been previous promises.
Whatever had happened afterward, Emma had learned not to trust the word safe.
The emergency response worker arrived twenty minutes later, rain shining on her coat.
She introduced herself as Marisol and immediately sat on the floor instead of taking the chair behind the desk.
“Can I talk to you two together?” she asked.
Emma answered before Grace could.
“Together.”
“Together it is.”
Marisol glanced at Rex.
“And does your friend stay?”
Grace finally looked up.
“Yes.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Rex had apparently been promoted.
Marisol asked simple questions first.
Were they hurt? Were they hungry? Did they know where they had been before the freight yard? Did anyone else know they were there?
Emma answered carefully.
Grace mostly listened.
When questions moved toward their father, Emma’s entire posture changed again.
“We left because we were scared,” she said.
Marisol did not ask her to prove the fear before treating it seriously.
“What made tonight different?”
Emma stared at the cocoa in her hands.
“He was angry.”
Daniel’s eyes shifted toward the window.
He had no intention of turning a frightened six-year-old’s statement into a dramatic interrogation.
The child was exhausted, cold, and clearly carrying more than she knew how to describe.
Marisol seemed to understand the same thing.
“Okay,” she said.
“You don’t have to tell me everything at once.”
Emma looked at her suspiciously.
“You’re not taking us home?”
“Not tonight,” Marisol said.
The words changed the air.
Grace began crying without making a sound.
Emma immediately put an arm around her.
Daniel looked away for a moment, giving them privacy even in the small room.
Then a pair of headlights swept across the front windows.
Emma froze.
Grace’s cup slipped from her hands and struck the floor.
Rex was on his feet before Daniel fully turned.
