By 3:30, my phone had buzzed six times.
I’d finished the newspaper, brewed a second pot of tea, and started organizing the junk drawer in my kitchen table.
Amazing what you can accomplish when you’re not rushing around serving people who consider you their personal bellhop.
The seventh call came at 3:45.
Instead of Isabella’s name, I saw an unknown number.
Probably her parents, borrowing someone’s phone at the airport.
I let that one ring too.
Outside, a neighbor was hanging Christmas lights on his porch, his children running around the yard with the manic energy that only December afternoons can bring.
Normal families doing normal things.
No one was stranded anywhere, waiting for someone who would never come.
4:15 p.m.
My phone started ringing and didn’t stop.
Isabella, then the unknown number, then Isabella again.
The buzzing became constant, like an angry wasp trapped against glass.
I walked to my kitchen and unplugged my landline from the wall.
Then I turned my cell phone completely off.
Perfect silence.
I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and heated up a can of tomato soup—comfort food I hadn’t allowed myself in months because every grocery dollar had gone toward making ends meet while subsidizing their lifestyle.
The cheese melted perfectly golden. The soup steamed in my favorite mug.
Outside, the winter sun was already starting to set, casting long shadows across my backyard.
Somewhere across town, three people were probably standing in an airport parking garage, arguing about taxi fare and wondering how their personal servant had the audacity to strand them.
The thought made my soup taste even better.
By 5:00 p.m., I’d eaten dinner, loaded my dishwasher, and was considering what movie to watch.
It had been years since I’d had an entire evening to myself without worrying about emergency calls for money or last‑minute favors.
I was reaching for the remote when someone started pounding on my front door.
Not knocking.
Pounding.
The kind of aggressive hammering that rattled the frame and announced pure fury.
I set down my tea and walked slowly toward the sound, already knowing exactly who I’d find on the other side.
The pounding intensified as I approached the door, each blow more violent than the last.
Through the peephole, I could see three figures crowded on my small porch like wolves circling prey.
I opened the door to find Cody Jenkins’s red face inches from mine.
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