Chapter 6
Caleb played the recording at the kitchen table after Ava had gone upstairs.
Vanessa’s voice came from the phone. She was speaking to Diane.
“Once Nia is gone, the younger one will stop copying her,” she said.
Diane answered too quietly for me to hear.
Vanessa continued, “Ava’s starting to ask questions. I need this handled before Marcus comes home.”
Caleb stopped the recording.
“I heard my name and Ava’s,” he said. “I thought Mom meant the pickup, but I didn’t know it was for Nia.”
I put my hands flat on the table.
“Thank you for showing me.”
“Does that mean Ava was next?”
“I don’t know. We shouldn’t guess from one sentence. Dana and Ms. Benton need to hear it.”
Caleb nodded. “I keep finding things on my phone and wondering what I should have done.”
“You can bring them to me. You don’t have to decide what they mean.”
I sent the recording through Dana. She forwarded it to the people reviewing the case.
Later, Ms. Benton asked to speak with Caleb again. He agreed if Renee could wait nearby. She did.
Ava noticed how tense the house had become. She sat beside me that afternoon with her drawing pad.
“Is Mom in trouble?” she asked.
“Adults are reviewing some choices she made.”
“Am I allowed to miss her?”
“Every day, if you do.”
“Is Nia allowed to be scared of her?”
“Yes.”
Ava drew three small figures holding hands. I watched her try to fit truths that seemed to conflict. She loved Vanessa. She loved Nia. I had to make room for both without asking her to defend anyone.
Nia began seeing a counselor named Dr. Harris. I drove her to the first appointment and waited outside.
On the way home, she asked if I wanted to know what they talked about.
“Only if you want to tell me.”
“I told her I hate the laundry room.”
“We can change it.”
“It still smells like the soap Vanessa used.”
That weekend, Renee and I moved the folding table and old shelves. Nia chose a new color for the walls. We painted it pale green and put a workbench beneath the window so Caleb could build models there.
Nia came to see it when we finished.
“I can go in now,” she said.
I didn’t ask her to prove it. She walked through the room once, then went back upstairs.
Later that night, I heard her moving around in her bedroom. I knocked. She had taken books from her suitcase and arranged them on the shelf.
“I ran out of room,” she said.
“We can get another shelf.”
She looked at me and smiled.
Caleb’s supervised meeting with Vanessa took place the next week. He wanted to ask why she had told him to send the pickup message.
The supervisor later gave Dana a summary. Caleb had asked. Vanessa said she had believed Nia needed help and that Caleb had misunderstood her instructions.
Caleb came home angry.
“She looked at me like I was the problem,” he said. “She told me taking pictures betrayed her.”
I sat beside him.
“How did you answer?”
“I said I took them because Nia needed somebody to see.”
I told him I was proud of him. He cried, and for once he didn’t try to hide it from me.
Dana began preparing for a hearing about the children’s arrangements. She explained what information the court would consider: the photographs, the attempted placement, the children’s accounts, and Vanessa’s response. She said we should focus on what each child needed, not on making a grand accusation we couldn’t prove.
I asked what would happen to Nia if the court believed Vanessa’s story.
“We have strong evidence,” Dana said. “And Nia’s voice matters. We’ll keep the process from putting more weight on her than she should carry.”
I wanted a guarantee. Dana gave me work we could do instead.
One evening, Vanessa’s mother, Evelyn, called me. We had always been polite, though never close.
“Vanessa says you’ve turned the children against her,” she said.
“I haven’t.”
“She says Nia was uncontrollable.”
I felt my anger rise. “Nia is twelve. She was locked outside in the rain.”
Evelyn went quiet.
“Did Vanessa tell you that part?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did she tell you she signed my name to arrange a placement?”
“No.”
I heard her breathing on the line.
“I’d like to speak with Caleb and Ava,” she said. “If they want to.”
“We’ll ask them.”
I told the children who had called. Ava wanted to speak to Grandma Evelyn. Caleb wanted time. Nia looked uneasy, so I assured her she was not expected to join.
Evelyn came over on Saturday to see Ava. Before going inside, she asked to speak with me on the porch.
“I saw the photographs Vanessa’s attorney sent in the review,” she said. “I didn’t know.”
I looked at her. “You need to believe what you saw.”
“I do.”
She wiped her eyes and went inside. She spent an hour coloring with Ava. She did not ask Nia to come down.
After she left, Nia stood in the hallway holding a book.
“Does Grandma Evelyn hate me?” she asked.
“No. She asked how you were doing. I told her you need space.”
Nia nodded.
The next week, a letter arrived from Diane’s business confirming the placement had been formally canceled and that the signature was under review.
I showed Nia only the part that mattered to her.
May you like
“You’re not going,” I said.
This time, she took the page and read it herself.
