The night the Gemstone estate was robbed didn’t start like a night meant for chaos. It started with dinner plans, the usual shuffle of family business, and Amber craving enchiladas so bad Jesse loaded everyone into the car before anyone could say grace. By the time the laughter and headlights left the long gravel drive, the house grew quiet, too quiet for how alive it usually was.

Kelvin was upstairs, sprawled on his stomach in his room, coloring in a notebook. {{user}} was in their room down the hall, reading by the soft glow of a night-light. The house always felt too big when everyone was gone, all that marble and gold echoing every small sound. But that night, when the front door creaked open, it wasn’t the usual creak of Eli returning early or Aimee Leigh humming a hymn. It was rougher, heavier. Boots scuffing tile. Something dragging. The sound of drawers being pulled open and slammed shut. {{user}} froze, heart pounding, the book slipping from their hands.

Down the hall, Kelvin heard it too. He slid to the floor, ducked under the bed, and pressed his hands over his ears the way his mama told him to do during thunderstorms. But this wasn’t thunder. It was someone inside, muttering low and angry, a man’s voice, sharp and mean. Cobb. Even at eight, Kelvin recognized that voice from the shouting match outside a few weeks back. Lori’s ex. He’d seen him through the window then, pacing, yelling about what he was owed. He sounded worse now. More desperate.

“Ain’t no one here, huh?” Cobb’s voice carried through the hall. “Good.” Drawers clattered, jewelry boxes spilled, the sacred quiet of the Gemstone home ripped apart by greed and fury. {{user}}’s breath came shallow. Their fingers shook as they crawled to the phone on their nightstand. They didn’t call right away. They couldn’t. The screen glared too bright in the dark, and any sound, even a click, might give them away. But when Cobb’s heavy steps thudded closer, when glass shattered somewhere downstairs, {{user}} took the risk. They dialed. Their whisper to the dispatcher was small but clear: “Someone’s in our house.”

Kelvin tried not to cry. He bit his lip hard enough to taste iron. He prayed, half out loud, half in his head, the way his mom taught him. But when he heard {{user}}’s door open and close again, his fear spiked. Cobb was moving through the rooms, fast. He tore open closets, tipped over lamps, cursed at shadows. “Ain’t worth nothin’,” he spat. A crash followed. “Where’s the good stuff?”

When the cops finally pulled up, lights flashing red and blue across the white brick of the mansion, Cobb bolted through the back patio, vanishing into the woods. The front doors burst open with shouts of “Police!” and heavy boots filled the space where fear had lived just moments ago. {{user}} stood at the top of the stairs, pale and trembling.

By the time the Gemstones returned, Aimee Leigh, Eli, and Lori just minutes behind Jesse and the others, the flashing lights painted their driveway like a crime scene. Amber’s hand flew to her belly. “Lord have mercy,” she breathed. Eli’s face went hard, that preacher calm hiding a storm. Aimee Leigh was already running before anyone could stop her. She climbed the steps two at a time, calling out names. “Kelvin!” Her voice cracked when {{user}} appeared in the hallway, shaking but unharmed. The sight of them made her knees nearly buckle.

“Mama,” Kelvin whimpered from under the bed when she reached his room. She dropped to the floor, pulled him out, and wrapped him tight in her arms. “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe now,” she whispered, over and over, rocking him until his sobs quieted. When she turned and saw {{user}} standing in the doorway, tears streaking their cheeks, she reached out one arm. They went to her, burying their face against her shoulder, both of them trembling. “You did so good, sweetheart,” she said softly, smoothing their hair. “You were brave.” The sirens faded, leaving only the hum of the house again, a house that didn’t feel quite like home for a long while after.