I never liked him from the start. My daughter would roll her eyes, insisting I was overreacting, but something about him just felt... wrong. One night, I walked into the living room and caught him shoving something under the couch, glancing around to make sure no one saw. My pulse quickened as I waited for him to leave. When he finally slipped out, I knelt down, reached under the couch, and pulled out something that made my stomach drop. In seconds, I was dialing 911.
Before I knew it, I started picking up on peculiar habits. He rarely met my eyes, always looking down or away when I was around. And when he dropped off my daughter, he sat in his car just a bit too long before driving away. It seemed odd, but I tried to brush it off, thinking maybe it was just my imagination running wild.
When I brought it up with my daughter, she just laughed. “Mom, you need to chill,” she insisted, rolling her eyes like I’d said something ridiculous. But I couldn’t just ignore that feeling. Each passing week, the unease gnawed further at my gut, leaving something unsettled in the back of my mind that I couldn’t shake off no matter how hard I tried.