Chương 6
"They say they're family and have permission to collect belongings."
"They don't have permission to be inside."
"Understood."
The officer's tone remained neutral.
"The older woman has a key."
"She had permission to use that key for emergencies."
"Do you want the key returned?"
"Yes."
"And do any of them live there?"
"No."
"Receive mail there?"
"Not that I know of."
Nora raised one finger.
Ryan looked at her.
"Tessa ordered a package here," she whispered.
Ryan relayed that.
The officer said, "One package doesn't establish residency by itself."
Ryan's shoulders loosened slightly.
"I need them out."
"I can request they leave, but if there's a dispute about residency or property, I may need local police."
"Call them if you have to."
Nora looked at him carefully.
It was the first time Ryan had heard himself say that about his own mother.
Alan lowered his voice.
"Mr. Mercer, there's another issue."
Ryan stood.
"What?"
"Your bedroom appears to have been searched."
The word searched was almost polite.
Ryan pictured drawers open, clothing pulled down, Nora's things handled by people who had spent the week making her afraid in her own home.
"Did they damage anything?"
"I can't determine that without you here."
"Are they in the bedroom now?"
"No."
"I want them kept out of it."
"That's already happening."
A woman shouted in the background.
Ryan recognized Paige.
Alan paused.
"Your sister says there's property in the bedroom belonging to your mother."
"There isn't."
"She says there are legal papers."
Ryan and Nora exchanged a look.
"What papers?"
"She won't tell me."
Ryan's mouth went dry.
"Do not give them anything from that room."
"I won't."
A door slammed over the phone.
Then Marla's voice came faintly through the line.
"He stole it from me."
Ryan froze.
Alan said something away from the phone, then returned.
"Mr. Mercer, your mother is claiming documents inside belong to her."
"What documents?"
"She's refusing to specify."
"Because she's lying."
"I can't make that determination."
"Ask her what the documents say."
There was a pause while Alan spoke to Marla.
Ryan heard only fragments.
Inheritance.
My husband.
Family money.
Then Alan returned.
"She's referring to an estate matter involving your father."
Ryan sat down slowly.
"Those papers were mailed to me."
"Do they have your name on them?"
"Yes."
"All right."
Alan's tone became firmer.
"I'm going to have everyone step outside."
A moment later, the connection filled with overlapping voices.
Marla protested.
Paige demanded to speak to Ryan.
Brooke said she needed her charger.
Tessa appeared to be crying.
Ryan listened without responding.
It sounded like every Sunday dinner of his childhood compressed into twenty seconds.
His father had once called the Mercer women a weather system.
At the time Ryan had thought it was affectionate.
Now he wondered whether his father had simply been tired.
Alan came back.
"They're outside."
"Thank you."
"Your mother gave me the key."
Ryan exhaled.
"I appreciate it."
"I recommend changing the locks anyway."
"Do you want them allowed back in later for remaining property?"
Ryan looked at Nora.
There would be clothes, toiletries, chargers, bags, whatever else four people accumulated in four days.
Nora gave a small shrug.
Not indifference.
Permission for him to decide.
"Not without me there."
"Okay."
"And not tonight."
"Understood."
When the call ended, Ryan expected relief.
Instead he felt hollow.
He put the phone on his thigh.
Nora said, "You did the right thing."
"Maybe."
"Ryan."
"I'm not saying they should stay."
He rubbed his palm against his jeans.
"I'm saying I spent years making sure they always had somewhere to land."
"They did."
"They had you."
The words were gentle, which made them worse.
Ryan stared at the floor tiles.
"I thought helping was different from this."
"It was, at first."
He looked up.
Nora was watching the IV bag instead of him.
"When did it change?"
"I don't know."
"Try."
She was quiet for a long moment.
"Maybe when they stopped asking."
Ryan thought of Paige sending him a screenshot of an overdue utility bill with no message attached.
Tessa calling from a tire shop and saying only, "Can you talk to the guy?"
Brooke appearing at their apartment with three trash bags of clothes and saying she needed the couch for "a night or two."
Marla never asked for money directly.
She preferred sentences like, "I guess I'll figure something out."
Ryan had spent years answering the part she left unsaid.
Nora picked at the paper wrapper around her straw.
"I should've told you sooner."
"Yes."
The answer surprised both of them.
Nora looked at him.
Ryan swallowed.
"I don't mean that like I'm blaming you."
"It sounds a little like you're blaming me."
"I know."
He leaned forward.
"I'm angry."
"At me?"
"Some."
Her expression tightened.
He kept going before fear made him retreat into politeness.
"I'm angry you didn't tell me Paige grabbed you."
"I was scared you'd do exactly what you're doing."
"What am I doing?"
"Blowing everything up."
Ryan stared at her.
"Everything needed blowing up."
"That's easy to say from this side of it."
"What does that mean?"
"It means they're your family."
"So?"
"So tomorrow you might hate me for this."
He recoiled.
"Nora."
"You think I haven't thought about that?"
"No."
"You think I wanted to be the wife who made you choose?"
"You didn't make me choose."
"They'll say I did."
"I don't care what they say."
"I do."
Her voice broke slightly.
"I have to live with the version of me they tell everybody about."
Ryan opened his mouth and stopped.
That was something he had not considered.
Marla had cousins, church friends, former coworkers, neighbors, women who had known Ryan since he had braces and acne.
Paige posted her entire life online whenever she was angry enough.
Tessa called people.
Brooke screenshotted things.
May you like
Nora had not merely been afraid of a fight in the apartment.
She had been afraid of becoming the villain in a story Ryan's family already knew how to tell.
