The next day, Clara did not go to school, so Devon thought she might have been punished badly the night before. He didn't bother to ask Tommy about it since both of them used to get Devon punished by Reuben before. Tommy looked upset, and his face looked swollen, like someone had slapped him.

Both of them went to school without talking. Devon felt good after arriving at school. No one tried to bully him after the incident. But for Devon, school bullies were better than Reuben.

"Good morning, Devon!" Teressa saw Devon and smiled.

"Good morning," Devon murmured.

"Oh, Tommy, what happened to your face?" Teressa asked Tommy, who was behind Devon and saw his face.

Tommy looked at Devon and said, "He slapped me."

Teressa's mouth opened in surprise, but Devon was not surprised. Reuben and his family always tried their best to make him look like a bad guy, so he didn't feel shocked.

"Why did you do that, Devon?" Teressa asked, but Devon said nothing.

"He always fights," Tommy said, and he quickly left while Devon also quickly left, as Teressa looked at them in disbelief.

Although Devon wanted to warn Teressa about Reuben, he didn't know how to do that. He also didn't want to get caught by Reuben and face punishment.

—-------

After he came home, Devon did his homework alone while Tommy tried to comfort Clara. Devon didn't give a single look at Clara out of fear. He was scared to see the bruises. He didn't even know whether she had them or not, but he didn't want to see anything. It was so hard to do homework while feeling that stressed.

When it was around 7 PM, Reuben came home. Devon heard Reuben talking angrily with a woman.

"Go away. I said go away. Don't even think about coming back here, or I'll call the police," Reuben barked.

"Please, Mr. Reuben, please. Let me talk to him just once. Please," the woman begged, and Devon wondered who the woman wanted to talk to.

Devon heard a noise, and the woman screamed, "Oh my gosh, why the hell did you push me?"

Then the woman screamed, "Ow... Ow. Let me go!" After that, Devon heard the gate open and close. He guessed that Reuben had pushed the woman out of the gate and closed it.

"CLARA, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU GO TO SCHOOL TODAY?" After a few minutes, Devon heard again. Devon knew it wasn't just about Clara not going to school. Reuben was angry at the woman who had come here. The woman had made him angry. Since Reuben couldn't do anything to that strange woman, he wanted to release his anger on someone else. Now he was blaming Clara for not going to school.

"Tommy, help me, Tommy," Devon heard Clara cry.

Then he heard Reuben coming to the basement.

"Dad, please don't, Dad. Don't," Devon heard Tommy beg while Clara cried.

Then he heard the sound of hitting while both Clara and Tommy screamed, yelled, and cried. Devon curled up as much as he could near his wall and covered his ears with his hands, shutting his eyes tight. After some time, the noise stopped, and Reuben also left. Then Devon heard the sound of sobbing.

—------

The next day, out of fear, the three of them went to school no matter what. Clara and Tommy looked sick, so Devon didn't look at them. Devon made sure to avoid Teressa. He didn't like that she always asked questions, but he had to warn her somehow.

When school was over, Devon and Tommy got into the car, but Clara didn't come.

"Where's the other one?" the driver asked.

"I don't know. I thought she came. She said she felt sick, so she was in the sick room all day," Tommy said.

"Go and get her," the driver said, and Tommy went to the sick room. He didn't want to see Teressa or talk to her. He knew that Teressa would be the next victim of his father, but he was afraid to tell her.

"Hey, Tommy, why are you here?" Teressa asked.

"I came to get Clara," Tommy said.

"Clara? She didn't come here," Teressa said.

"But she came here saying she was sick. I thought she was here all day," Tommy said.

"No, Tommy, she didn't come," Teressa said.

After a few minutes, the whole school was looking for Clara. Her backpack was in the classroom. Finally, they had to check the CCTV, and they found Clara sneaking out of the school.

"Where do you think she is going?" the principal asked Tommy.

"I don't know," Tommy said in shock. Clara never went anywhere alone. But today she had, and he was shocked about why. If their father found out about this, she would get punished again.

The principal called Reuben, and Tommy and Devon went home. Reuben acted like he was so sad that Clara was missing. He said Clara might have gone to meet some friends or done something stupid like some of the girls her age did. The principal said nothing against Reuben. Reuben told the principal that he didn't have to worry about Clara because he could find her. Teressa wondered why Reuben said that.

"We better call the police, Reuben," Teressa said, but Reuben looked like he didn't want the police involved.