Nothing was packed. No drawers had been cleared. No clothes were missing from the closet.

None of it looked like a father planning to vanish. It looked like a father who fully intended to come home.

Chapter 5 — The Verdict Outside

Outside, several neighbors had already decided otherwise. One woman murmured that Andrew had probably cracked under the weight of raising a child alone.

Another raised a phone and started filming the porch, sure the story would be all over town by nightfall.

Someone called Andrew a monster. Someone else said no real father would ever leave a seven-year-old alone, not even for thirty minutes.

Natalie heard all of it, but her attention never left Ella.