Chương 5
Dad closed his eyes briefly.
"Did Daniel know?"
"I think so."
"How?"
"He called while I was here."
I looked at Mara.
"You didn't answer."
"No."
She opened another folder.
"Then he sent this."
It was a screenshot of a message.
You don't get to disappear when you're angry.
Mara had replied.
I'm not disappearing.
I'm visiting your mother.
His response was only three words.
Same difference.
Dad stared at the page for a long time.
"Why didn't you leave then?"
Mara sat down.
Her hands rested on her stomach.
"Because I was scared."
Nobody corrected her.
"I had nowhere to go."
She looked at me.
"My parents are four hours away."
She looked at Dad.
"And I didn't want to show up at your house with a suitcase and a pregnancy pillow."
Dad's mouth twitched.
"Your mother would've complained about the pillow."
Mara smiled.
"Exactly."
The smile disappeared almost immediately.
"I also kept thinking he'd calm down."
She reached into the box.
"He always did."
"What changed?"
She pulled out a small black notebook.
"This."
She opened it to a page near the middle.
The handwriting was neat.
Dates filled the left margin.
Short descriptions followed.
January fourteen.
Took phone during dinner and checked messages.
January nineteen.
Said I wasn't allowed to see Rachel alone.
February three.
Changed garage code.
February eleven.
Asked why I bought prenatal vitamins without telling him.
March six.
Locked bedroom door from outside while he went to work.
I stopped reading.
Dad didn't.
He turned the page.
"What happened on March sixth?"
Mara's face went still.
"I called a locksmith."
"Did you tell Daniel?"
"Yes."
"What did he do?"
"He said I had embarrassed him."
Dad looked up.
"And then?"
"He slept in the guest room."
I almost laughed from disbelief.
Mara gave me a tired look.
"That was considered a punishment."
Dad shut the notebook.
"Why the hair?"
Mara looked at the kitchen floor.
"I used to cut it every few months."
She touched the ends.
"After we got married, Daniel said he liked it long."
"That's not unusual."
"No."
She folded her hands.
"The first time I cut it, he didn't speak to me for two days."
I felt my jaw tighten.
"The second time, he said I looked cheap."
"The third time, he threw the scissors away."
Dad's fingers curled around the notebook.
"And you let him?"
Mara looked directly at him.
"I was learning what happened when I didn't."
Silence settled over the table.
Outside, a delivery truck rolled slowly past the house.
The driver stopped at the neighbor's mailbox, checked his phone, and drove on.
For some reason, the ordinary sound made the room feel more real.
Mara opened the final envelope.
"I need you to understand something."
She slid a photograph across the table.
It showed the back of her head from months earlier.
Her hair was long then.
There was a narrow strip near the nape that had been shaved.
"What is this?"
"I cut that myself."
"When?"
"After he locked me out of the bathroom."
Dad looked at the photograph.
"I thought if I made it ugly enough, he'd stop caring about it."
I couldn't find anything to say.
Mara looked toward the hallway.
"He didn't."
She took out her phone.
"There is one more thing."
She unlocked it.
"I didn't show this to your mother."
She opened an audio file.
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
Then she pressed play.
Daniel's voice came through the speaker.
It was quiet.
Controlled.
Almost gentle.
"If you leave me now, Mara, you will regret what happens next."
The recording continued for several seconds.
Then his voice said something that made my father sit forward.
"You think your family will choose you over me."
The recording stopped.
Nobody moved.
Mara looked at Dad.
"I think that's what he meant by last night."
Dad's face had gone pale.
"What did he mean?"
Mara reached for the phone.
"I don't know."
Then she looked at me.
"But I think the call he got at your house wasn't about him."
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out.
A message from an unknown number waited on the screen.
You should stop helping her.
I showed it to Dad.
Mara read it over my shoulder.
She didn't look surprised.
She only closed her eyes.
"I was afraid of that."
Dad stood.
"Then we need to know who sent it."
Mara shook her head.
"No."
She picked up the black notebook.
"We need to know what Daniel thinks he can take from me."
Mara closed the notebook and slid it back into the box.
"He's been talking about the house."
Dad looked at her.
"What about it?"
"He says it's his."
I frowned.
"It's yours too."
"Legally, yes."
She glanced toward the window.
"But that's not what he says."
Dad leaned against the table.
"When did this start?"
"About two months ago."
She rubbed her thumb along the edge of the notebook.
"He started saying that if we ever separated, I would have to leave because he paid the down payment."
"Did he?"
"No."
She looked at me.
"My grandmother did."
Dad's eyebrows rose.
"Your grandmother?"
Mara nodded.
"She left me money when she died."
I remembered the first time I'd met Mara's grandmother.
She had been tiny, sharp-eyed, and unimpressed by nearly everything Daniel said.
At dinner that night, she had watched him explain to Mara how she should order her steak.
Afterward, while Mara was in the bathroom, her grandmother had taken my hand and said, "That boy talks like he owns oxygen."
I had laughed.
Mara had laughed too when I told her later.
Neither of us had understood how prophetic it sounded.
Mara opened a drawer and pulled out a folder.
Inside were copies of the house closing documents.
"The down payment came from my grandmother's trust."
Dad read the page twice.
"So Daniel knows this."
"Yes."
May you like
"Then why does he claim otherwise?"
"Because he says the money became marital property once we bought the house."
