Chapter 4 - The Empty House Back at the estate, the police lights were gone, replaced by the heavy, oppressive silence of a midnight rainstorm beating against the reinforced glass windows.
Adrian sat alone at the massive dining room table in the dark. He hadn't turned on a single light. The bottle of aged scotch sat untouched beside his elbow; he hadn't touched a drop, knowing that numbing his mind would be an insult to the catastrophe he had created.
The front door clicked open.
Adrian stood up so fast his chair screeched loudly against the hardwood floor. He rushed into the foyer, expecting—hoping against hope—that Clara had come back.
It wasn't Clara. It was Olivia, holding a cardboard box filled with baby supplies, diapers, and a few changes of clothes. Behind her walked her younger brother, Leo, his eyes red and swollen from crying.
"Where is she?" Adrian asked, his voice cracking as he reached out a trembling hand toward his daughter.
"She's staying at a hotel downtown," Olivia said coldly, dodging past him without making eye contact. She set the cardboard box down on the entryway bench with a sharp thud. "She packed her bags twenty minutes after we got back from the station. And no, she didn't want to talk to you. She said if you try to call her, she'll block your number permanently."
Adrian felt a physical pain stab deep into his chest, doubling him over. "Olivia... please. Talk to me. Help me fix this. I made a mistake—"
"A mistake?" Olivia spun around, her voice rising in sudden, furious pitch, shattering the quiet gloom of the hallway. "A mistake is forgetting to buy milk! A mistake is missing a turn on the highway! What you did wasn't a mistake, Dad! You let a lying psychopath manipulate you into hitting the only woman who has truly loved us and cared for us since Mom died! You didn't trust her. The second things got hard, you chose violence."
"I was blind!" Adrian shouted back, tears finally breaking free, streaming down his cheeks. "Vanessa lied to my face! She played me!"
"Because you wanted to be played!" Olivia screamed back, her own tears overflowing. "You were so busy working sixty hours a week to keep this family afloat financially that you let a toxic stranger into our home and ignored Clara's quiet sacrifices! You deserve to be alone, Dad. You broke something that can never, ever be glued back together."
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She grabbed her brother's hand, pulling him toward the stairs. "Come on, Leo. We're packing our things too. We're going to stay with Clara."
"No... no, please, don't leave me too," Adrian whispered, dropping heavily to his knees on the hardwood floor, burying his face in his hands as he wept openly in the empty, echoing house.
