Chương 13
“I needed confirmation.”
“The date is confirmation.”
“Dates are suggestions.”
“That is disgusting.”
He poured the milk down the sink.
The ordinary act calmed me more than anything Ramirez had said.
I watched him rinse the carton.
“You recycle now?”
“I have a therapist and I recycle.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“I’m basically unbearable.”
I smiled despite myself.
Then his phone buzzed on the counter.
Both of us froze.
He looked at the screen.
“Nora.”
“Answer.”
He did.
This time he kept it off speaker until I nodded.
“Nora?”
Her voice came through thin and exhausted.
“I’m still at the coffee shop.”
“Police with you?”
“Not anymore.”
“Where’s Helena?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“She left.”
Alex’s face hardened.
“With who?”
“Dad.”
“They just left?”
“They weren’t arrested.”
I leaned forward.
“Nora, did your mother talk to you before she left?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Another pause.
“Nora.”
“She told me I had ruined Victor’s life.”
Alex shut his eyes.
I said, “What else?”
“She said the video made everything look worse than it was.”
My fingers curled into the couch cushion.
“And the gun?”
“She says Victor must have put it in her suitcase.”
“Does she believe that?”
“I don’t know what she believes anymore.”
Nora sounded suddenly younger.
Not the twenty-seven-year-old woman who had filmed me for fun.
A girl caught between people she had spent her whole life trusting.
“She also said you’re trying to steal the house from Victor.”
I looked at Alex.
He went still.
“What?”
“She said that’s what this is really about.”
“My house?”
“She said you’ve been planning to leave him and take everything.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
The question came out harder than I intended.
Nora went quiet.
Alex looked at me sharply.
I closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Her voice was small.
“You’re allowed.”
I hated that.
I did not want permission from Nora to be angry.
“I wasn’t planning to leave him,” I said.
The truth tasted humiliating.
“Not before this morning.”
Nora breathed out.
“I figured.”
“What else did Helena say?”
“She told Dad they need a lawyer.”
“That part makes sense.”
“She told him not to speak to police anymore.”
“That also makes sense.”
Alex gave me a look.
“What?”
I said.
“People are allowed lawyers.”
“I know.”
“You sounded like Ramirez.”
“I’m becoming extremely reasonable.”
“You’re terrifying.”
Nora made a faint sound that might have been a laugh.
Then she said, “There’s something I didn’t tell the officer.”
The air in the room changed.
Alex sat across from me.
“What?”
Nora hesitated.
“The night before.”
I waited.
“I came downstairs around midnight.”
“Why?”
“I was hungry.”
“That tracks.”
“Alex.”
“Sorry.”
Nora continued.
“Victor and Mom were at the dining table.”
“What were they doing?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Were there papers?”
“Yes.”
My skin prickled.
“How many?”
“A bunch.”
“Did you see what they were?”
“No.”
“I didn’t care.”
She sounded ashamed of that now.
“I got chips and went back upstairs.”
“Did they say anything?”
Nora paused.
“Mom asked him if you would sign.”
I stopped breathing.
“What did Victor say?”
“He said you wouldn’t have to.”
Alex and I looked at each other.
“Exact words?”
he asked.
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“He said something like, ‘She won’t have to if we do it the other way.’”
My pulse began pounding.
“What other way?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Helena answer?”
“She said they couldn’t afford another delay.”
The room seemed colder.
“Another delay in what?”
“I don’t know, Claire.”
Nora’s voice broke.
“I swear I didn’t know what they were talking about.”
“Did Raúl know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was he there?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
Alex said, “Tell Ramirez.”
“Now.”
“She gave me a number.”
“Call it now.”
Nora snapped, “Stop ordering me around.”
Alex opened his mouth.
I raised a hand.
He closed it.
“Nora,” I said.
“I need you to tell the police exactly what you remember and exactly what you don’t.”
“I know.”
“Don’t make it cleaner.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t make it worse either.”
A pause.
“Okay.”
I looked at Alex before he could object to the word.
He wisely stayed quiet.
Nora said, “Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“Do you hate me?”
The question caught me off guard.
I looked at my bruised arm.
At the hospital bracelet.
At the couch where I had shaken under Alex’s blanket.
I could have lied.
“No,” I said.
Then I corrected myself.
“I don’t know yet.”
Nora inhaled.
“That’s fair.”
“You filmed me.”
“I know.”
“You laughed.”
“I know.”
“And then you kept filming when he hit me.”
“I know.”
Her voice became barely audible.
“I think that’s why I didn’t stop recording.”
“What do you mean?”
“I froze.”
She started crying.
“I didn’t know what to do, and holding the phone felt like doing something.”
I looked toward the window.
Traffic moved below Alex’s apartment.
A delivery van double-parked outside the dentist’s office.
A woman in scrubs came out carrying a paper bag.
I thought about Nora’s phone raised toward me while I begged her to stop filming.
“I’m not ready to make you feel better about it.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Good.”
“I just wanted you to know.”
“I know now.”
After we ended the call, Alex stood and went to the kitchen without speaking.
He opened cabinets.
Closed them.
Opened the same cabinet again.
“You’re doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“Pretending to look for something because you’re angry.”
He stopped.
“I need crackers.”
“They’re in your hand.”
He looked down.
A sleeve of crackers was already in his fist.
“Okay.”
I almost laughed.
Then his phone buzzed again.
He looked at the screen.
“Unknown number.”
My body went rigid.
“Don’t answer.”
He silenced it.
A voicemail notification appeared.
We stared at it.
“Could be the hospital,” he said.
“Could be anyone.”
May you like
He tapped the voicemail icon and held the phone away from his ear.
A man’s recorded voice filled the room.
