Chapter 2 - The Empty Nest and the Open Door
By mid-afternoon, Chloe’s fever had stabilized slightly after I administered a dose of pediatric ibuprofen found tucked away in the back of the medicine cabinet. She had drifted into an exhausted, fitful sleep on the couch, her small chest rising and falling in steady rhythms.
I didn't call George. Calling him would only give him time to fabricate an excuse, delete records, or hide behind his mother's rehearsed defense.
Instead, I walked out the front door and down the steps toward the commercial storefront attached to the front of the property—the very space where Fiona operated her nail salon rent-free.
The glass door of the salon was propped open with a heavy brass wedge. Inside, the smell of acrylic fumes and cheap lavender air freshener hit me instantly. Fiona was standing behind the front counter, chatting animatedly with two local women while a fresh coat of neon pink polish dried on her fingernails.
When the bell above the door chimed, Fiona looked up, expecting another client.
Her smile vanished the moment she saw my face.
"Lucy?" Fiona blinked, her voice dropping an octave as she dropped her nail file onto the counter. "What are you doing here? I thought your deployment didn't end until June."
The two clients turned around in their plush swivel chairs, staring at me with polite curiosity.
"Where is my husband, Fiona?" I asked, my voice carrying a quiet, lethal calm that made the air in the room drop ten degrees.
Fiona forced a defensive laugh, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "How should I know? He went down to the coast for a guys' weekend. You know how hard George works running his business consulting stuff. He needed a break."
"A break," I repeated, walking slowly across the freshly laid tile floor until I stood right in front of the counter. "While my five-year-old daughter was left alone upstairs for forty-eight hours without food, water, or medicine."
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The color drained entirely from Fiona's face. The clients gasped, murmuring among themselves as they hastily gathered their purses and stood up.
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