I Found My Neighbor’s Twin Toddlers Hiding in My Empty Trash Can—Then Their Mother Told Me Why They Had Been Sent to Find Me

Then, through the front window, I saw him being escorted toward a vehicle in handcuffs.

He looked toward my house.

I moved away from the window before the girls could follow my gaze.

They did not need that image to understand that their mother was coming out.

PART 4 — The Woman From the Driveway

I recognized her before I knew her name.

She was the woman I had seen standing beside Derek in the driveway a week earlier.

But there was no mistaking her silence now for shyness or a reluctance to meet the neighbors.