Chương 14
“We have cereal,” he said.
“You buy it when we have it.”
“I’m trying to improve.”
“I like this kind.”
They bought both boxes.
At home, Mia carried the plea summary to the window and read it again.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Daniel sat across from her.
“I think a trial would be hard.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“For Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“You care if it’s hard for her?”
He considered the question.
“Yes.”
Mia frowned.
“Caring that someone suffers isn’t the same as excusing what they did,” he said.
“Do you want her to take the deal?”
“I want you not to have to testify.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He looked at the page between them.
“Yes. I want her to take it.”
“Because you’re scared.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I should?”
“I think you should tell Simone what matters to you. I’ll support you.”
“What if I want a trial?”
“I’ll support you.”
“What if you think I’m wrong?”
“I’ll tell you.”
Mia folded the page in half, then opened it again.
“I want her to say the real words.”
Daniel nodded.
“I don’t need jail,” she continued. “I don’t know what jail does. But I want her to say she scared me because she wanted me to lie.”
“That seems reasonable.”
“Will they make her?”
“I don’t know.”
Mia looked irritated.
He almost apologized.
Instead he said, “I’m here.”
The prosecutor revised the proposed agreement after receiving Mia’s statement. Evelyn would be required to acknowledge in open court that she knowingly pressured her granddaughter to change truthful testimony and used financial threats to do so.
Evelyn rejected the language.
Her attorney objected that it required her to admit Mia’s account of the crash was truthful before Julian’s case had been resolved. Prosecutors offered narrower wording: Evelyn believed Mia’s testimony would harm Julian and improperly tried to alter it.
She rejected that too.
The intimidation case moved toward trial.
Mia blamed herself for three days.
Then Rebecca arrived with takeout noodles and said, “Good.”
Daniel looked at her. “Good?”
“Evelyn thinks she can outlast a child. Let her try.”
“Don’t say that in front of Mia.”
“I’m sitting in front of Mia.”
Mia wound noodles around a fork. “Aunt Rebecca thinks I should testify.”
“I think Evelyn should admit what she did.”
“That isn’t the same,” Daniel said.
“It becomes the same if she refuses.”
“You aren’t the one who gets questioned.”
Rebecca’s face softened slightly. “No. I’m not.”
Mia looked between them. “Stop talking like I’m not here.”
Both adults stopped.
She put down her fork.
“I don’t want to testify. I want her to tell the truth.”
Rebecca nodded. “Those are both true.”
Daniel noticed the phrase.
Mia did too.
“Nurse Claire said that,” she said.
“Smart nurse.”
“She likes hospital pudding.”
“No one’s perfect.”
Mia smiled.
The trial was scheduled for March.
Julian’s case would come later.
During preparation, prosecutors played the hospital recording for Mia. Hearing Evelyn’s voice again made her hands cold. The room in the recording sounded smaller than she remembered. Daniel’s command—Step away from my daughter—seemed to come from farther away.
When her own voice said, Then they heard everything, Mia looked toward the floor.
“I sound weird.”
Simone paused the audio. “How?”
“Like I knew what would happen.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What did you think would happen?”
“I thought Detective Reed would hear it.”
“He did.”
“I didn’t know he would arrest her.”
Simone nodded. “You don’t need to defend the arrest. That was his decision.”
“Grandma’s lawyer will say I trapped her.”
“He may suggest that.”
“Did I?”
“You recorded a conversation because you were afraid no one would believe you.”
“That’s not no.”
Simone leaned forward. “A trap creates conduct that would not otherwise happen. Did you tell your grandmother what to say?”
“No.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“No.”
“Did you force her to enter the room?”
“No.”
“Then the recording captured her decisions.”
Mia looked at the paused audio display on the laptop.
“Dad had a recording too.”
“Yes.”
“He hid his.”
“Yes.”
“Will Grandma’s lawyer ask about that?”
“Possibly.”
“Will I have to say I was mad at him?”
“If you’re asked and it helps explain something, tell the truth.”
“What if it makes us look bad?”
Simone’s expression did not change.
“Truth does not promise to make people look good.”
At home that evening, Mia found Daniel reading job listings.
“Were you listening outside the room when Simone talked to me?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you what I said?”
“No.”
Mia stood beside the table.
“I’m going to tell them I was mad at you.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know.”
“I assumed.”
“Are you mad?”
“No.”
“You look worried.”
“I am.”
“About you?”
“Yes.”
She waited.
“And you,” he added.
“That was late.”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed the laptop. “I’m afraid the defense will use my mistakes to make you seem coached or confused. I’m afraid they’ll say I created a fight with my family and put you in the middle.”
“Did you?”
“Not on purpose.”
“That’s not no.”
He almost smiled. “You’ve become difficult to cross-examine.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you listen to the answer.”
Mia sat opposite him.
“Did Mom know Grandma was bad?”
The word bad felt too simple, but Daniel did not correct it.
“She knew Grandma could be controlling.”
“Why did she let us live in the house?”
“Because it was a beautiful house in a good school district, and the trust made it cheap. Because your mother liked the garden. Because I told her I could handle the boundaries.”
“Could you?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t she leave?”
Daniel looked at Rachel’s folded note, which he now carried in his wallet.
“She was sick by the time things got worse. Moving would have taken energy she didn’t have. And she loved me.”
“That made her stay?”
“Partly.”
“Was that good?”
“Sometimes love keeps people in places they should leave.”
Mia absorbed this.
May you like
“I love Grandma,” she said.
“I know.”
