Chương 6
The smile disappeared.
Marisol touched the girl’s shoulder.
“I’ll get coffee.”
“You hate hospital coffee,” Clara said.
“I hate all coffee from machines.”
“That one is from a machine.”
“I am making a sacrifice.”
Marisol left them.
Olivia climbed carefully onto the chair beside the bed.
She still had her phone.
There was now a clear plastic evidence bag folded in her lap.
Clara frowned.
“They gave it back?”
“Dad copied the video to the police computer.”
“Did they ask you questions?”
“A lot.”
“You don’t have to answer mine.”
Olivia picked at a loose thread on her jeans.
“I told them Mom leaves Emma alone sometimes.”
Clara kept her voice neutral.
“Okay.”
“She says she’s going to the bathroom.”
Clara waited.
“But she leaves.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw her car go.”
Clara felt tension gather beneath her ribs.
“Where was I?”
“Sometimes you were home.”
“Then Emma wasn’t alone.”
Olivia looked at her.
“You didn’t know.”
Clara went still.
“What didn’t I know?”
“Mom would put Emma in her room and tell you she was sleeping.”
“That happens.”
“Then she would leave through the garage.”
Clara’s mouth went dry.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Olivia.”
“You said I don’t have to answer.”
Clara closed her eyes.
She had deserved that.
“You’re right.”
The girl looked guilty immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“I wasn’t trying to be mean.”
“You weren’t.”
Clara adjusted the blanket over her legs.
“Did she ever leave Emma when nobody else was in the house?”
Olivia nodded.
Clara waited for details that did not come.
Her pulse began climbing again.
“How many times?”
Olivia whispered, “I don’t know.”
“More than once?”
Another nod.
“Was that why you recorded the security video today?”
Olivia’s fingers stopped moving.
“No.”
Clara felt the answer before she understood it.
“Then why?”
Olivia stared down at the phone.
“Because she said she was going to make you leave.”
Clara said nothing.
“She heard Dad talking to you in the kitchen yesterday.”
Clara searched her memory.
Adrian had asked about Emma’s feeding schedule.
They had spoken for perhaps three minutes.
Nothing else.
“What did your dad say?”
“He said you were the only person in the house who knew where anything was.”
“That sounds like him.”
“Mom got mad.”
“At what?”
“She said he was embarrassing her.”
Clara frowned.
Olivia looked toward the curtain.
“She said you acted like Emma was yours.”
Something cold moved through Clara.
Vanessa had made versions of that accusation before, always disguised as humor.
Emma settles faster for Clara.
Clara knows her better than I do.
We should put Clara’s name on the nursery door.
Clara had laughed because Vanessa had laughed.
Now none of it sounded funny.
“What else did she say?”
Olivia’s face tightened.
“She said people look at you like you’re better than her.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your dad?”
Olivia did not answer.
Clara leaned back.
She felt suddenly ashamed of the question.
“That wasn’t fair.”
Olivia shrugged.
“Dad does.”
Clara’s head snapped toward her.
“Does what?”
“Looks at you.”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Too immediate.
Olivia frowned.
“Not like kissing.”
Clara almost choked.
“I wasn’t asking that.”
“You made a face.”
“I have many faces.”
“That was your weird one.”
Despite everything, Clara laughed.
Olivia smiled for a second.
Then her eyes filled again.
“Mom hates when people need you.”
The room seemed smaller.
Clara looked at the child sitting beside her in mismatched shoelaces and understood that jealousy might explain cruelty without explaining the staircase.
“What happened today before Emma went downstairs?”
Olivia’s smile vanished.
“I heard Mom talking on the phone.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say?”
Olivia hesitated.
“She said, ‘He’ll blame her.’”
Clara stared at her.
“Are you sure?”
Olivia nodded.
“She said it twice.”
A police officer appeared beyond the curtain before Clara could ask anything else.
This one was younger than Ruiz and held a small notebook in one hand.
“Ms. Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Officer Chen.”
He glanced at Olivia.
“We need to ask you a few questions when you’re ready.”
Clara looked at the girl.
Olivia had gone pale.
Chen noticed.
“This can wait a minute.”
“No,” Olivia whispered.
Clara touched the edge of her own mattress rather than reaching for her.
“What is it?”
Olivia looked toward the doorway.
“Mom knows I heard her.”
Clara’s throat tightened.
“How?”
“Because she saw me.”
The corridor sounds seemed to recede.
Olivia pressed both palms around the phone.
“She saw me before she pushed Emma.”
Officer Chen lowered the notebook.
“What do you mean she saw you?”
Olivia’s eyes stayed on the phone in her hands.
“I was by the upstairs hall.”
Clara watched the girl’s thumb rub the same corner of the case again and again.
“Mom was near Emma’s stroller.”
Chen pulled a chair closer but did not sit in it.
“Were you hiding?”
Olivia shook her head.
“I was going to get my sneaker.”
“The one from the media room?”
“No.”
She looked embarrassed.
“I lose them a lot.”
Clara almost smiled, then remembered what the child was describing.
Olivia continued.
“I heard Mom talking.”
“On the phone?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“She came out of her room.”
“Was Emma with her?”
“In the stroller.”
Chen’s voice stayed even.
“What did your mother say when she saw you?”
Olivia looked toward Clara.
“She didn’t say anything first.”
“What did she do?”
“She stared at me.”
Clara felt the back of her neck tighten.
Olivia swallowed.
“Then she smiled.”
Chen wrote something down.
“What kind of smile?”
Olivia frowned, frustrated by the question.
“Not happy.”
Clara understood exactly what she meant.
Chen seemed to as well.
“What happened next?”
“She asked why I wasn’t downstairs.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I was looking for my shoe.”
“Then what?”
“She told me to go find Clara.”
Clara’s breath caught.
Olivia looked at her.
“She said Emma needed her bottle.”
May you like
Clara replayed the last hour before the fall.
Vanessa had called from the upstairs landing and told her Emma was awake.
