Chapter 7 - WHY DAD WAS OUTSIDEMom had called Dad that morning.
I learned later.
8:14 a.m.
Six-minute conversation.
No recording.
Both eventually agreed on the broad content.
Mom told him:
“Gary is getting worse.”
Dad asked:
“Worse how?”
Mom said:
“He’s angry all the time. Especially with Ethan.”
Dad told her to call police if Gary hurt anyone.
Mom said she did not want “another court war.”
Dad said:
“There’s already a case.”
Then she asked him to come at four that afternoon.
Not into the house.
To the neighborhood.
She wanted to talk about temporarily letting us stay with him if things escalated.
Why didn’t she simply leave Gary?
Money.
Fear.
Shame.
Habit.
We would discover all of it later.
Dad arrived early.
3:42.
Parked around the corner because Mom had specifically said:
“Do not let Gary see your truck.”
At 3:48, he called the house landline because Mom’s cell went straight to voicemail.
That was the call I answered.
Before dialing, he had already heard shouting through an open kitchen window while walking toward the front door.
When I answered, he recognized Gary’s voice behind me.
Then he heard Ethan crying.
His exact sentence made more sense later, even if his grammar didn’t.
“Stay away from the childs!”
Then he knocked.
Dad did not magically appear because he was omniscient.
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Mom had summoned the person she had spent years telling us did not care.
That contradiction became harder for her to hide than Gary’s belt.
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