Chapter 5
My mother opened the door before we knocked.
She must have seen the headlights.
She was wearing her blue robe, her silver hair loose around her face.
The second she saw Leo asleep in my arms, her expression hardened.
“What happened?”
I broke.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
I just stepped into her house and folded.
She took Leo first.
Then she pulled me against her with one arm.
Richard stood in the doorway like a man waiting for judgment.
My mother looked at him.
“Did you protect them?”
His face crumpled.
“Not soon enough.”
She stared at him for a long moment.
Then she stepped aside.
“Come in. The child needs quiet.”
That was my mother.
Sharp as glass when necessary.
Soft only where it counted.
We put Leo in the small guest bed with pillows along the sides. My mother sat beside him, stroking his hair.
Richard and I stood in the hall.
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he said.
“I didn’t ask you to stay.”
“I know.”
He looked exhausted.
“I’m not staying because I think I deserve to. I’m staying because if Leo wakes up scared, I want him to see both of us.”
I hated that this was the right answer.
So I nodded.
At dawn, my mother made coffee strong enough to hold up a spoon.
Then she placed a folder on the kitchen table.
I frowned.
“What is that?”
“Every time Vanessa said something cruel to you in front of me, I wrote it down.”
Richard looked up slowly.
My mother opened the folder.
Dates.
Times.
Comments.
Screenshots of messages.
Photos from last Thanksgiving, when Vanessa had grabbed Leo too hard by the arm and left small finger marks.
My stomach turned.
“You never told me you had this.”
“You were trying to keep your marriage peaceful,” she said. “I was trying to keep a record.”
Richard touched one page with shaking fingers.
“I remember this day.”
“Yes,” my mother said. “You said Vanessa was just stressed.”
He bowed his head.
“I was wrong.”
My mother leaned forward.
“Wrong is repairable. Blind is dangerous. Which one are you going to be now?”
He looked at her.
“Neither.”
His phone rang.
Vanessa’s name filled the screen.
No one moved.
It rang until it stopped.
Then a message appeared.
If you let Anna do this, I will tell everyone what really happened in Dad’s will.
Richard went still.
I stared at the message.
“What does that mean?”
He looked sick.
“My father left me the company shares. Vanessa always believed he changed the will because of me.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Another message came.
Ask your perfect wife what I found in her drawer.
My blood chilled.
Richard looked at me.
“What drawer?”
“I don’t know.”
But I did know one thing.
May you like
Vanessa was done pretending.
Now she was hunting.
