# Part 2: My Brother Reached the House Before I Did
“Derek, don’t go in alone.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
Ten minutes earlier, I had wanted him to do anything necessary to reach Noah. Now, imagining my brother walking toward a man holding a baseball bat, I understood how quickly this could become worse.
“I see a patrol car,” Derek said. “I’m flagging them down.”
Then I heard his truck door open.
I stayed on the line.
Voices sounded in the distance. Derek gave the officer Noah’s name, then explained what my son had told me.
“My brother called emergency services. His little boy is inside.”
A second vehicle arrived.
“Derek?”
“I’m here.”
“Tell them he’s four.”
“They know.”
I stopped at a red light and stared at the intersection.
Every second I had ever wasted suddenly felt unbearable.
## The Front Door
Derek moved away from the entrance when the officers asked him to.
Through his phone, I heard someone knock firmly.
Then a man’s voice.
“What’s the problem?”
Travis.
I recognized him from the few tense exchanges we had shared during pickups.
An officer explained that they were responding to a report of an injured child.
“He’s fine,” Travis answered. “He got upset because I took his tablet.”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
“Noah,” another voice called. “Can you hear me?”
There was a pause.
Then, faintly:
“Uncle Derek?”
I nearly lost my grip on the phone.
Derek spoke immediately.
“I’m here, buddy. The officers are going to help you.”
Travis began talking louder.
Something scraped across the floor.
I heard an officer give a firm instruction, followed by several seconds of voices I couldn’t separate.
“Derek?”
No answer.
“Derek!”
Then his voice returned.
“They’ve got Noah.”
My whole body shook.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s awake. The paramedics are coming to him now.”
That wasn’t the answer I wanted.
It was the answer my brother could honestly give.
## Twelve Minutes Too Long
When I turned onto Lena’s street, an ambulance stood outside the house.
Derek was beside it.
He saw my car and pointed toward an open parking space.
I barely remembered stopping the engine.
“Where is he?”
“Inside the ambulance.”
An officer met me before I reached the doors.
I gave my name.
Then I saw Noah.
He sat on the stretcher with his injured arm supported, his face wet and blotchy.
His little dinosaur sneakers hung above the floor.
“Daddy.”
I climbed in when the paramedic invited me.
“I’m here.”
He reached toward me with his other hand.
I held it carefully.
“I called you,” he whispered.
“I know. You did exactly the right thing.”
His eyes searched my face.
“Are you mad?”
The question hurt more than anything I had heard that afternoon.
“No, sweetheart. Not at you.”
Behind me, Derek stepped back to give the medical team room.
I looked toward him.
He nodded once.
No speeches. No threats.
He had helped bring my son out.
That was enough.
## What Noah Tried to Explain
During the journey to the hospital, Noah told me he had knocked over a drink.
“I got a towel,” he said.
“You don’t have to explain right now.”
“But I was cleaning it.”
I bent closer.
“A spilled drink doesn’t make it okay for someone to hurt you.”
He stared at our joined hands.
Then he asked whether Travis would come to the hospital.
I looked at the paramedic before answering.
“You’re with me. We’re going to tell the hospital staff what happened.”
I couldn’t promise that every problem was over.
I could promise I wasn’t leaving him alone.
## The Call From Lena
My phone rang while we waited for imaging.
Lena.
I stepped just outside Noah’s room, where I could still see him.
“What happened?” she demanded. “There are police at my house.”
“Noah is at the hospital.”
Silence.
“Is he hurt?”
“Yes.”
“How badly?”
“The doctors are examining him.”
She began crying.
I wanted to believe the sound meant she was as shocked as I had been.
“Where were you?” I asked.
“At work. I left Travis with him.”
“For how long?”
“What does that matter right now?”
“It matters.”
She said Travis had watched Noah before.
Then she said he had never done anything like this.
I leaned against the wall.
“Did Noah ever tell you he was afraid of him?”
Another pause.
“He doesn’t like being corrected.”
I looked through the doorway at our son, sitting perfectly still while a nurse adjusted the blanket around him.
“He’s four, Lena.”
“I know how old my child is.”
I ended the call before the conversation became another argument Noah could hear.
## My Brother’s Question
Derek arrived shortly afterward.
He brought my jacket, which I had left in the car, and a charger from his truck.
An officer spoke with me privately while Noah remained with the nurse.
I described the call as precisely as I could.
The words Noah used.
The voice in the background.
The moment the line ended.
I didn’t guess at anything I hadn’t witnessed.
Later, Derek sat beside me.
“Was it his tablet he called from?”
I nodded.
“We set up the calling app for both houses.”
“Does it save anything?”
“Not automatically.”
Derek glanced toward Noah’s room.
“He said something to the paramedic. About wanting you to see.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t hear all of it.”
I stood.
## The Tablet
When I returned to Noah, he was watching the doorway.
“Uncle Derek said you wanted me to see something.”
His eyes filled again.
“My tablet.”
“What about it?”
“I tried to make a video for you.”
I pulled a chair beside the bed.
“You don’t need to show me anything now.”
“He said I was lying last time.”
The room seemed to narrow around us.
“Last time?”
Noah looked down.
Before I could say anything else, my phone vibrated.
A message from Lena.
**Please don’t let him get confused. He’s been making up stories about Travis for weeks.**
I read it twice.
For weeks.
She had known something I hadn’t.
Then another message appeared.
**If the police find the tablet, call me before you let them watch anything.**
I looked at Noah.
“What were you recording, buddy?”
He rubbed the edge of his blanket between his fingers.
“Not today.”
I waited.
He glanced toward the door, then lowered his voice.
“The other time. When Mommy was home.”
**To be continued in Part 3.**
