Chapter 4 - Red Lights in the Snow
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“Don't be ridiculous!” Victoria yelled, her posture suddenly rigid. “Put that phone away right now!”
Daniel rushed down the stone steps, slipping slightly on the ice, and grabbed my arm.
“Dad, stop! Put the phone down! You don't understand what you’re getting involved in!”
“I’m getting involved in saving my grandson’s life!” I snarled, shoving his hand off my arm. “Dispatcher? Yes, I need emergency services and police at 142 Elmridge Court immediately. A child has been locked outside in freezing weather without shoes or proper clothing.”
Daniel went pale. He backed away, staring at me as if I had just betrayed him.
“You called the cops on your own son?” Daniel whispered, his voice trembling.
“You stopped being my son the moment you let him freeze out here,” I replied coldly.
I guided Ethan to my truck, opened the passenger door, and lifted his rigid body into the warm cab. I cranked the heater to maximum, blasted the defroster, and wrapped two emergency blankets from under my back seat around his legs.
Victoria marched down the driveway, her heels clicking angrily on the ice.
“You have no right to take him! He is our responsibility!”
I slammed the passenger door in her face and locked it from the inside. I stood in front of the door, framing it with my body.
“Try stopping me, Victoria.”
A few minutes passed in agonizing silence. The snow continued to fall, burying the driveway in fresh white powder. Then, in the distance, the wail of sirens cut through the quiet night. Two police cruisers turned onto the street, their red and blue emergency lights flashing against the snow-covered trees.
Victoria immediately smoothed her silver dress, adjusted her fur coat, and put on a polite, charming smile as the lead cruiser pulled up behind my truck.
Two officers stepped out into the cold. The senior officer, a burly man with graying temples, approached us cautiously.
“Good evening. We got a call about a child in distress?”
Victoria stepped forward before anyone else could speak, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness.
“Good evening, Officer! I’m so sorry you were called out here on New Year’s Eve. This is just a silly family misunderstanding. My stepson was taking a time-out outside.”
I stepped forward, pointing at the truck.
“Officer, my grandson was sitting barefoot in the snow in twelve-degree weather for over forty minutes. His feet are dangerously cold.”
The officer’s expression hardened instantly. He looked at Daniel.
“Is this true, sir?”
Daniel swallowed hard, shifting his weight nervously.
“It... it wasn't forty minutes, Officer. I wasn't tracking the exact time...”
The second officer walked over to the passenger side of my truck and tapped gently on the glass. Ethan rolled down the window slightly.
“Hey buddy,” the officer said softly. “Are you hurt?”
May you like
Ethan looked at the officer, then at his father, and finally at me. He reached into his pajama pants pocket with a trembling hand.
“Grandpa...” Ethan whimpered softly. “The money... it wasn't hers.”
