Chapter 4 - The Boy Who Wouldn’t Speak
Caleb stopped speaking about the river entirely.
The next morning, he ate half a piece of toast, drank orange juice, and acted as though the worst night of his life had never happened.
Audrey recognized the behavior.
Trauma rarely looked dramatic all the time.
Sometimes it looked like a child carefully spreading strawberry jam across toast while refusing to look at a door.
Dorian did not understand that.
He tried.
That was different from understanding.
At breakfast, he asked Caleb whether he remembered leaving his room.
Caleb shook his head.
Whether someone had taken him downstairs.
Another shake.
Whether he had seen a car.
Nothing.
By the fourth question, Audrey kicked Dorian beneath the table.
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Coffee.”
“I have coffee.”
“Then drink it instead of interrogating your eight-year-old.”
Adrian, sitting across from them, covered a smile.
Dorian ignored him.
“I need answers.”
“You need patience.”
“Patience doesn’t identify whoever did this.”
“No, but fear can bury the answer so deep you never get it.”
Caleb’s spoon stopped moving.
Audrey immediately changed the subject.
“What’s your favorite subject at school?”
“Science.”
Dorian looked irritated.
“Dinosaurs or space?”
“Space.”
“Correct answer.”
Caleb smiled slightly.
Across the table, Adrian watched them.
“You’re good with him,” he said.
Audrey shrugged.
“I treat him like a person.”
Dorian looked offended.
“I treat him like a person.”
“You treat him like a witness.”
Adrian laughed.
Even Caleb smiled.
Dorian stared at all three of them.
“I’m pleased my suffering has become breakfast entertainment.”
The tension eased.
For ten minutes they were almost normal.
Then a security guard entered.
“Mr. Ashford.”
Dorian stood.
The guard whispered something.
Dorian’s expression darkened.
He left immediately.
Adrian followed.
Audrey remained with Caleb.
“What happened?” the boy asked.
“No idea.”
“Dad gets that face when something bad happens.”
“What face?”
Caleb lowered his eyebrows dramatically.
Audrey laughed.
“That face?”
“Yes.”
“I thought that was just his face.”
Caleb laughed too.
It was the first full laugh Audrey had heard from him.
Then the lights flickered.
Only once.
Caleb dropped his spoon.
His entire body froze.
Audrey noticed immediately.
“What happened?”
“No.”
“What?”
“He turned the lights off.”
Audrey’s pulse quickened.
“Who?”
Caleb stared at the table.
“I don’t remember.”
Audrey didn’t push.
Instead she said, “Okay.”
Caleb looked up, surprised.
“That’s okay?”
“It’s okay not to remember yet.”
His eyes filled.
“He said Dad would be angry.”
Audrey kept her voice neutral.
“Who said that?”
Caleb shook his head.
“He said Dad would think I ran away.”
“Your dad doesn’t think that.”
“He gets angry.”
“So do I.”
“You?”
“Absolutely. Yesterday somebody stole my yogurt from the employee refrigerator.”
Caleb blinked.
“I considered a full criminal investigation.”
He smiled weakly.
Audrey leaned forward.
“Being angry isn’t the same as stopping loving somebody.”
Caleb’s smile disappeared.
“He said it was.”
Audrey felt the meaning settle between them.
Someone had manipulated this child using the one fear guaranteed to control him.
Losing his father.
Dorian returned twenty minutes later.
Audrey met him in the hall.
“You need to hear something.”
“What?”
“Caleb remembers someone turning off the lights.”
Dorian went still.
“He said whoever took him told him you’d believe he ran away.”
Dorian’s face tightened.
“Anything else?”
“He thinks you’d stop loving him if you were angry.”
Dorian looked toward the dining room.
For the first time, Audrey saw pain instead of rage.
“Why would he believe that?”
“Because somebody he trusted told him.”
Dorian rubbed a hand across his face.
Audrey waited.
Finally he said, “We found the vehicle.”
“What vehicle?”
“A sedan was captured by traffic cameras near the bridge eleven minutes before you heard Caleb.”
“Owner?”
“Stolen plates.”
“Driver?”
“Not visible.”
Dorian handed her his phone.
The image was poor.
A dark sedan moving through rain.
Nothing useful.
Then Audrey zoomed in.
“What?”
“Look at the windshield.”
A small parking permit was attached near the bottom.
Dorian enlarged it.
The logo belonged to one of his own restaurants.
ASHFORD HOUSE.
“Employees?”
“Executives too.”
“Can you trace the number?”
“It’s blurred.”
Audrey stared at it.
“Maybe the restaurant keeps records.”
Dorian called immediately.
While he spoke, Audrey noticed a framed family photograph on the hallway table.
Dorian.
Caleb.
Adrian.
Several employees.
Everyone smiling at a company charity dinner.
Adrian wore a silver ring.
Audrey leaned closer.
A wolf.
Her stomach tightened.
Dorian ended the call.
“What?”
She pointed.
“The photograph from the security camera.”
“The ring?”
“Adrian wears one.”
Dorian’s expression didn’t change.
“It’s a family crest.”
“Who else has one?”
“My father gave them to both of us.”
“Anyone else?”
Dorian hesitated.
“A few senior people received replicas over the years.”
“So it doesn’t identify Adrian.”
“No.”
Audrey looked again.
“Do you trust your brother?”
“With my life.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Dorian’s gaze hardened.
“With Caleb’s.”
The certainty in his answer bothered Audrey more than hesitation would have.
That afternoon, she found Caleb sitting on the floor of his room drawing.
Another wolf.
This one stood before a large black shape.
“What’s that?”
“A door.”
“The blue door?”
He nodded.
Audrey sat nearby.
Caleb drew a stick figure beside it.
The figure wore something around one hand.
A circle.
Audrey’s throat tightened.
“A ring?”
Caleb immediately scribbled black pencil over the hand.
“Caleb—”
“I don’t remember.”
She stopped.
He began coloring harder.
The pencil snapped.
Caleb stared at the broken tip.
Then whispered, “If I tell, he said somebody else goes in the river.”
Audrey’s blood went cold.
“Who?”
Caleb looked directly at her.
“You.”
That night, Audrey told Dorian she was leaving.
Dorian stared at her.
“Because you’re afraid?”
“Yes.”
He seemed surprised by her honesty.
“I’m not ashamed of that.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“I have rent. Jobs. People depending on me. I’m not part of this world.”
Dorian nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
Audrey expected him to argue.
Instead he called for a car.
When she reached the front steps, Caleb ran after her.
He wrapped both arms around her waist.
“Don’t go.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
“I have to.”
“He knows you.”
She froze.
“What?”
Caleb buried his face against her jacket.
“He knows where you live.”
Audrey looked toward Dorian.
For the first time, neither of them asked Caleb another question.
Because the answer had already arrived.
Someone inside the Ashford house had threatened an eight-year-old child with Audrey’s address.
May you like
And Audrey suddenly understood that leaving the mansion would not remove her from the story.
It would simply remove the walls protecting her.
