It was almost midnight, and the quiet in the house felt heavy, like it was pressing down on the couple.
Neither Mr. Joshua nor Mrs. Rosa spoke. They didn’t need to.
They moved quickly and quietly, grabbing their coats and heading out to the garage. They took the sedan, the one that fit into the neighborhood’s darkness without standing out.
“Are you sure about this, Joshua?” Mrs. Rosa asked softly as the garage door closed behind them. “If we go to her now, there’s no going back. We’re breaking the promise we made twenty years ago.”
Mr. Joshua gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white.
“The promise was broken the second that boy parked his truck on our gravel,” he said. “We stayed quiet to keep her safe. If she’s not safe now, then what’s the point of all this silence?
