Hiding in Daylight

Chapter 7

"Why is it so late again already?", Lena cursed as she shut the motor of the car in her driveway. She got out and hurried up, and as she pushed open the front door, a comfort enveloped her. The familiar and unique scent that only one's own home could provide, greeted her senses. Additionally she recognized the aroma of something delicious cooking in the kitchen. She smiled, as all the stresses of her day momentarily fell off of her.

"Mommy's home!" called out an excited voice from the living room down the hall. Lena's heart swelled as she saw her daughter Lily, running toward her with arms outstretched. She dropped her bag and scooped the little girl up into her arms, showering her with kisses.

"Hey there, how was your day? Did you have fun in school?" Lena said, her voice filled with love. Her daughter giggled and hugged her tightly before wriggling out of her arms and answered: "It was good mama! Our math teacher was sick and I could draw something. Oh and Tina played with me during the breaks! Mama, can I play some video games? I did all my homework and even helped papa earlier in the garden. Can I, please?"

Lena smiled, "Sure honey, sounds like you finished your chores for today." With a joyful cheer her daughter ran back into the living room, to which she followed her.
As she entered she looked around for her husband, only to find him in the kitchen, wearing an apron and humming to himself as he chopped vegetables. The sight of him, so at ease and content, helped her to relax even more.

"Hey, you," Maik said, turning to greet her with a smile that revealed his chipped front tooth. "How was your day?" Lena walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss, before she wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head against his chest. "Long," she admitted, exhaling softly.

Maik put his arms around her, watching his greasy hands didn't touch her clothing and squeezed her gently, before he kissed the top of her head. "Well now you're home. Dinner will be ready soon, so why don't you change and lay back now."
Lena pulled back to look at the shining kitchen. "You've been busy today, haven't you? Everything looks great."

He grinned proudly. "Yeah, I figured since I'm working from home, I could just clean the house and have everything finished when you are back. Lily also helped."
She felt a surge of gratitude and was close to crying. "I love you. You're amazing, you know that?"

He shrugged, a bashful smile on his lips. "Just trying to help out. Isn't that what partners do?" With a smile Lena gave him another kiss, before hurrying up to switch into something more comfortable.

As Lena sat at the dinner table, her mind kept drifting back to the articles Oliver had shown her earlier that day. Despite her best efforts to push them aside and focus on the present moment with her family, she found herself unable to shake the nagging sense of curiosity and unease they had sparked within her.

Between bites of food they chattered about their day. Maik was retelling a meeting he had with a client earlier that day, but Lena couldn't fully engage with him; her thoughts kept wandering back to the articles and the questions they had stirred in her mind.

"Maybe there is some gang activity and the officials are trying to keep everything under covers to avoid panic. But is it then safe for Lily? Maybe I should consider driving her to school from now on, not to imagine what I would do if she got kidnapped or something else happened to her."

A shiver ran down her spine as she considered the possibilities. Part of her wanted to delve deeper into the articles, to research and explore the strange phenomena they described.
Lost in her thoughts, Lena barely noticed when Maik reached across the table to gently squeeze her hand, his concerned gaze meeting hers. Startled, Lena looked up and noticed her daughter had already left the table.