Chapter 3 - The Woman on the PorchThursday evening arrived beneath a darkening sky.
David and Leah were sitting on the couch, watching a comedy neither of them was actually following.
Then the phone chimed.
A motion alert.
David froze.
He opened the camera feed.
His blood turned cold.
His mother was standing on the porch.
She wasn't knocking.
She wasn't calling.
She simply stood there.
Motionless.
Watching the camera.
In her hand was a small brown paper package.
"Who is it?" Leah whispered.
David didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
He activated the camera's speaker.
"Leave the property immediately," he said. "Or I'm calling the police."
His mother didn't react.
She slowly placed the package on the welcome mat.
Then she leaned toward the camera.
Her lips moved.
The microphone caught nothing.
She walked away.
David waited twenty minutes.
Then he opened the door with a baseball bat in one hand.
He brought the package inside without touching it.
Using kitchen tongs, he opened it.
Inside was a baby blanket.
Beautiful.
Soft.
Hand-knitted.
For one brief moment, Leah's face changed.
Then David saw what had been hidden inside the blanket.
A dried green herb leaf.
His stomach tightened.
He photographed everything.
Then he placed the evidence inside a lockbox.
And called the police.
That night, David finally understood something.
His mother wasn't asking to come back into their lives.
May you like
She was reminding them that she still believed she owned a place in them.
And she wasn't going to surrender it quietly.
