Chapter 5 - what his ex-wife knew)
Erin Reed met Kallie in a coffee shop forty minutes away.
Not because it was convenient.
Because Erin did not want Seth to know.
She arrived wearing sunglasses even though the sky was cloudy.
Kallie had known her for almost nine years.
Birthdays.
Christmas dinners.
Family vacations.
Then the divorce had happened, and Diane had quietly rewritten Erin from daughter-in-law into enemy.
Kallie had believed parts of that story.
Sitting across from Erin now, she wondered how much.
"How's Paisley?" Erin asked.
"Physically okay."
"I'm sorry."
"Did Hallie tell you?"
"She told me Uncle Seth made Paisley cry and Grandma said everyone needed to stop talking about it."
Kallie looked away.
Erin took a breath.
"I need to tell you some things."
"Okay."
"Seth never hit Hallie in the face."
Kallie immediately noticed the wording.
"In the face?"
Erin nodded slowly.
"He grabbed her hard. He spanked her when he was angry. Once he dragged her by the arm into her bedroom because she spilled juice."
"How old?"
"Three."
Kallie's stomach turned.
"Did you report it?"
"No."
"Why?"
Erin's eyes filled with shame.
"Because I was stupid."
Kallie said nothing.
Erin corrected herself.
"No. That's not fair. I was scared."
"Of Seth?"
"Of everybody."
That answer sounded familiar.
Erin continued.
"Every time something happened, Diane told me I was too sensitive. Richard told me Seth had a temper but a good heart. Seth told me I was trying to make him feel like a criminal for parenting his own daughter."
Kallie looked down.
"What changed?"
"The divorce."
"Why did you leave?"
Erin gave a humorless laugh.
"Because one night Hallie spilled cereal in the kitchen and Seth punched the pantry door beside her head."
Kallie's chest tightened.
"She was four."
"Did anyone know?"
"I told Diane."
Kallie already knew the next part.
"She defended him."
"She told me marriage requires patience."
Kallie closed her eyes.
Erin reached into her bag.
"I saved some messages."
Kallie looked up.
Erin placed an old phone on the table.
"I didn't know why I kept them. Maybe because some part of me wanted proof that I wasn't imagining things."
She scrolled.
Messages from Seth.
You make me angry and then act afraid.
Stop teaching Hallie to be scared of me.
If you tell my parents about every argument, you're the one destroying this family.
Kallie felt sick.
"Can I send these to Detective Cole?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
Erin nodded.
"I should have done it years ago."
Kallie forwarded copies with Erin's permission.
Then Erin said, "There's something else you need to understand."
"What?"
"Your parents will protect him as long as they can."
"I know."
"No. You don't."
Erin leaned forward.
"When we were divorcing, Richard offered me money."
Kallie stared at her.
"For what?"
"To keep certain accusations out of the custody filings."
"How much?"
"Twenty thousand."
Kallie nearly laughed from disbelief.
"You're serious?"
"I didn't take it."
"Do you have proof?"
"No. He said it in person."
Kallie leaned back.
Suddenly her father's calls to relatives made sense in a darker way.
This was not his first time managing Seth's consequences.
Erin continued.
"Diane told people I was unstable. Seth said I had invented his temper because I wanted full custody. They made every problem about my personality."
Kallie thought about the group chat.
Kallie was very upset.
Emotional interpretation.
Old resentments.
The strategy was identical.
"They're doing it to me now."
"I know."
For the first time, Kallie saw something like pity in Erin's face.
"That's why I called."
When Kallie returned home, she found a package on her porch.
No return address.
Inside was a framed photograph from Hallie's birthday.
One taken before the slap.
Paisley sat on Kallie's lap smiling.
Seth stood in the background.
Across the glass, someone had written with black marker:
YOU COULD HAVE ENDED THIS.
Kallie stopped breathing.
She carried the package inside using a dish towel.
Then she called Detective Cole.
He arrived forty minutes later.
"Don't touch anything else."
"I didn't."
"Did you see who left it?"
"No."
"Door camera?"
Kallie froze.
She had forgotten.
Her porch camera.
Cole checked the footage with her.
At 2:14 p.m., a dark SUV pulled to the curb.
Someone wearing a baseball cap walked up.
Placed the package.
Walked away.
The face was mostly hidden.
But the vehicle was not.
Kallie knew that SUV.
Her father drove it every day.
Cole paused the video.
"Is that your father's car?"
Kallie stared at the screen.
"Yes."
Her phone buzzed.
A message from Richard.
We need to talk privately before this gets worse.
Cole read it over her shoulder.
Kallie looked at him.
"What should I do?"
"Nothing tonight."
"But he came to my house."
"Let me handle that."
Cole downloaded the footage.
Before leaving, he turned back at the door.
"Ms. Reed."
"Yes?"
"Your family's story isn't getting cleaner."
May you like
He glanced at the framed photograph sitting in an evidence bag.
"It's getting worse."
