Chapter 4 - Ghosts of the Past
The following morning, I did something I hadn't done in nearly two years: I drove to the Sunrise Rehabilitation Center on the edge of the city to see my brother.
Ian looked older than his thirty-two years. His skin was pale, and his eyes carried the hollow look of a man who had fought a war against his own mind and was barely holding the line. But when he sat down across from me in the visitor room and saw my face, his posture straightened.
"Natalie?" he asked, his voice rough. "What happened? Is Lizzy okay?"
I couldn't hold back the tears as I told him everything. I told him about the late-night phone call, the broken kitchen window, the metal latch screwed shut over the storage closet, the hospital room, and Gloria’s threat in front of the nurse.
As I spoke, Ian’s knuckles turned white against the laminate table. The trembling in his hands wasn't from withdrawal—it was pure, unadulterated rage.
"The pantry," Ian whispered, his voice cracking. "She did the pantry to her too."
"Ian, I need your help," I pleaded, leaning forward. "Mom and Dad are trying to paint me as an unhinged abductor. They're telling CPS that I staged the photos. The court hearing is in three days. If we don't prove a pattern of abuse, they're going to give Lizzy back to them."
Ian closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath. "I kept journals, Nat. When I was nineteen, before I started using hard drugs... my therapist told me to write down everything that happened in that house so I wouldn't feel like I was going crazy. Mom found out and burned most of them, but I kept one hidden."
"Where?" I asked, my heart hammering.
"In the old barn behind the house," Ian said, looking me in the eye. "Under the floorboards in the tack room. I hid it there before I checked into rehab two years ago. It has dates, times, descriptions of how Mom locked me away, how Dad watched and helped her cover it up, and how they threatened to call the police on me every time I tried to leave."
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He leaned closer, his voice fierce with a father's love. "I failed Lizzy by getting sick, Natalie. I let those monsters take my daughter because I was too broken to fight them. Don't let them take her. You go get that journal. And if you need me to stand in front of that judge in handcuffs and tell them what Mom and Dad really are, I'll do it."
I gripped his hand through the barrier. "I'll get it, Ian. I promise."
