“Leah, why would you do that without me there? Weren’t you obviously considering him as a possibility of doing this? He could try to do something to you and I’m not there to protect you guys.”
“Well, at the time I didn’t really think about that, Chase. I just wanted to get to the bottom of it. Caleb wasn’t talking and I needed answers. So, he came over and I confronted him. He acted like he had no clue and I think I believed him.
“I mean, you know I don’t trust people very easily, but Roy is one of those people that I do trust, if I didn’t I would never let Caleb go over there without me. So when I accused Roy of doing this, he denied it. When I told him that I wouldn’t be allowing Caleb over to his place anymore until I got some answers, Caleb finally broke his silence. I mean, he hadn’t made a peep since the bath tub.” She took a deep breath and I could hear her quietly crying through the phone.
“Leah, this isn’t your fault. I know that’s what you’re doing right now. You had no idea that this would happen. Now, please tell me what Caleb said. I need to know.”
“He said it was Shelia,” she huffed, spitting her name out. I instantly cringed. I knew Caleb didn’t like his dad’s girlfriend at all and it made me wonder if this was the first time. I just figured he liked having all of his dad’s attention and that was why he disliked her so much. I had no clue why he wouldn’t have spoken up and told us what was going on.
“Apparently, Roy had to go into the office for something real quick on Sunday and Shelia agreed to watch Caleb back at his house. It sounded like she got angry at Caleb for not wanting to clean up and that’s when it happened.”
“Well, is Roy still there? What are we going to do this about? She can’t just get away with putting her hands on him like that, I don’t care how fucking mad she was about him picking up his damn toys. I’m coming home, Leah. They’ll understand it’s an emergency.” I instantly started throwing clothes into my bag and raced into the bathroom, swiping my hand across the vanity to gather everything quickly.
“Chase, there’s nothing you can do here. Just finish up tomorrow and then come home. Roy immediately called Shelia but of course, she denied it all. We both took pictures of the evidence and Roy is on his way to the police station right now to file a report. Obviously, he’s done with her. He’s going to believe Caleb over her any day.”
“Fine, Leah.” I dropped down to sit on the edge of the bed and my shoulders relaxed just a little bit. It at least sounded like Roy was handling things. “It sounds like you have everything handled pretty well then. I just can’t stand the thought of someone putting their hands on his little body like that. How is he acting?”
“He’s fine, really. After Roy came and he explained everything to us, he completely went back to normal. He’s playing with his cars right now in the living room and watching some cartoons. He misses you though, we both do.”
“I miss you guys too. I love you, tell Caleb I love him too and I’ll see you tomorrow.” I collapsed on the bed after I hung up the phone, trying to push the images out of my mind of what had happened to Caleb.
He didn’t deserve any of that, no kid did. I could tell that it would be a long time before I got any kind of sleep and I probably wouldn’t feel relaxed again until I was home and saw that Caleb was fine with my own two eyes.
Chapter 25
Leah
After having to deal with so much drama yesterday, Caleb and I deserved to have a fun day. So I called Mary and asked her if she would keep Tootsie for a little bit longer. She was shaken up as much as me by the incident that had happened.
We hit up the place where Chase had taken me on one of our first non-date as ‘just friends’. We got there as soon as the doors opened, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves and raced the go-carts around the track so much, by the time we finally got off them I could barely walk straight.
Caleb pulled me to the arcade next and we made our last stop at mini golf, doing one round. We grabbed a quick lunch when we were all finished and then headed home. I had a feeling we were both in need of a good nap and then I promised Caleb we would pick Tootsie up afterwards.
I knew something was odd as soon as I stepped up to the front porch of our house and noticed the door was slightly ajar. Now, I had always been paranoid since I was a little girl. I checked the doors almost every time I went near them to make sure they were locked growing up with my mom because of all of the riff raff she brought home. So, I knew there was no way I had left it unlocked.