Chương 6
Something older replaced it.
Fear.
Then it was gone.
“You think I’m hiding something.”
“I think everyone is hiding something.”
Robert looked toward the courthouse doors.
“That’s a convenient thing to believe.”
The sentence landed harder than he probably intended.
Mara folded her arms.
“You think I wanted this?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
That surprised both of them.
Robert looked away.
“I think you’re scared.”
Mara almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because hearing someone say it out loud made it harder to pretend.
A few feet away, Claire watched them without interrupting.
She had always been good at waiting until people finished damaging things before she stepped in.
It was one of the reasons Mara had never fully trusted her.
Not because Claire was cruel.
Because Claire noticed everything.
“You should both stop fighting in a hallway where strangers are pretending not to listen,” Claire said.
Robert gave her a tired look.
“That’s your advice?”
“No. My advice is that neither of you knows enough yet.”
Mara looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Claire hesitated.
Just long enough for Mara to notice.
Claire rarely hesitated.
“I found out the anonymous statement was submitted through the court’s online system.”
Robert looked at her.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to confirm something first.”
Mara felt her stomach tighten.
“Confirm what?”
Claire reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.
“There was an attached document.”
Robert stepped closer.
Mara saw his expression change before she saw the screen.
“What?” she asked.
Claire lowered the phone slightly.
“It was a letter.”
“From who?”
“That’s the problem.”
Claire looked between them.
“There was no name.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
The hallway continued around them.
A child complained about being hungry.
A lawyer apologized into a phone.
A printer hummed from an open office door.
Normal life continued while theirs stood still.
Mara hated that.
She hated that the world did not stop when something important happened.
“What did the letter say?” Robert asked.
Claire looked down.
“It said Lily was being protected from information she was too young to understand.”
Mara felt a cold sensation move through her chest.
Protected.
People always used that word when they wanted permission to make decisions for someone else.
“Protected from what?”
Claire did not answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
Robert took the phone from her.
Mara watched him read.
His face changed slowly.
Not shock.
Recognition.
She stepped forward.
“Robert.”
He handed the phone back.
“There’s a reference to the summer before Lily was born.”
Mara stared at him.
“What happened that summer?”
Robert looked at the floor.
And that scared her more than anything.
Because Robert was many things.
Stubborn.
Proud.
Sometimes impossible.
But he was not someone who looked away from problems.
Not unless the problem was something he already knew he could not fix.
“I don’t know if this is about me,” he said.
Mara studied him.
“Then why are you afraid?”
He did not answer.
Claire moved between them slightly.
“Before we do anything else, we need to stop guessing.”
Mara looked at her.
“You sound like you already know something.”
“I know that guessing is exactly how people get hurt.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“It isn’t.”
The honesty caught Mara off guard.
Claire was not pretending.
She was frustrated too.
That was somehow worse.
Because if Claire was scared, the situation was bigger than Mara wanted to admit.
They agreed to meet at Robert’s house because Lily was still with Mara’s sister and they needed somewhere private.
The drive there felt longer than it was.
Mara kept seeing the same image in her mind.
Robert reading that letter.
The brief moment where he looked like someone had opened a door he had spent years keeping locked.
When they arrived, Robert did not turn on the television.
He usually did.
Even during arguments, he liked having noise in the background.
Tonight the house was silent.
Lily’s drawings were still attached to the refrigerator.
A pair of small shoes sat near the doorway.
A stuffed rabbit rested on the couch.
Mara looked at those things and felt the strange cruelty of ordinary objects.
They stayed exactly where they were.
They did not care that adults were breaking apart around them.
Robert stood near the kitchen counter.
“I need to tell you something.”
Mara waited.
Claire sat down but did not open her notebook.
That small choice told Mara she was listening as a person, not an attorney.
Robert rubbed his hands together.
“I received another message.”
Mara’s eyes narrowed.
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
The room changed.
“You didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t know if it was real.”
“What did it say?”
Robert looked toward the hallway.
Toward Lily’s room.
Then back at them.
“It said I was looking for the wrong person.”
Mara stared.
“Wrong person?”
Robert nodded.
“It said the person who gave the anonymous statement was not trying to take Lily away.”
Claire finally spoke.
“What was the person trying to do?”
Robert swallowed.
The pause lasted too long.
“They were trying to make sure Lily knew the truth before someone else told her.”
Mara felt anger rise immediately.
“Her truth?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are we standing here acting like this means something?”
“Because the message included a name.”
Nobody moved.
Mara felt her fingers tighten around her bag strap.
“What name?”
Robert looked at Claire.
Then at Mara.
“Daniel Ellison.”
The name stayed in the room.
Daniel.
Mara’s father-in-law.
Lily’s grandfather.
A man who had spent the last year saying he wanted peace for the family.
A man who had cried when Lily called him on his birthday.
A man who had told Mara that whatever happened between the adults, Lily deserved stability.
“No,” Mara said quietly.
Robert looked at her.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
May you like
“Daniel would never do this.”
Claire did not argue.
