Sarah disappeared on day four. She left a note saying she couldn’t take it anymore, that she was going somewhere far away, that she didn’t know where Caleb was either. She left her phone. She left her car. She took a bus.
Then she went to the police three states away and told them everything.
Everything.
About Caleb. About the basement. About the food withheld. About Jesse on the garage floor and the wrench in Travis’s hand and the words “tell Mack.”
It took eight months. There was a trial. Travis got twenty-five years for manslaughter and twelve more for child abuse, running concurrent. He’ll be eligible for parole when he’s fifty-four.
Caleb didn’t testify. The judge let him send a video instead. He wore a tie. Linda had bought it for him. He sat very straight and said, “I don’t have anything to say to him. I just want him to stay away from my mom.”
That was it. That was the whole video.
He didn’t cry. He’d stopped apologizing for things by then.
