Chương 9
A canceled appointment.
A joke at dinner.
A key that fit every lock.
A woman saying she needed air.
His mother had taught him to respond to emergencies while teaching him not to recognize her as one.
When Claire emerged, she looked exhausted.
“How was it?” he asked.
She fastened her seat belt. “I talked for an hour.”
“About the panic attacks?”
“About everything.”
“Did she say anything?”
“She said we’d meet again.”
Daniel started the car.
Claire looked through the rain. “I told her about the night I went to the boathouse.”
He waited.
“I had a thought,” she said. “Not about hurting myself. I wondered what would happen if I kept walking into the lake until the house became quiet.”
Daniel’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
Claire saw.
“It was a thought,” she said. “I didn’t want to die.”
“You should have told me.”
“I’m telling you now.”
He turned off the engine.
She looked at him. “Don’t turn this into proof that your mother was right.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“The thought scared me because it wasn’t about dying. It was about leaving all of you somewhere you couldn’t reach me.”
Daniel stared at the rain moving down the glass.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I know.”
He looked at her. “Do you still think about it?”
“No.”
“Are you saying no because you’re afraid of what happens if you say yes?”
Claire’s expression softened slightly. “That was a better question.”
He waited.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think about walking into the lake. I think about driving away. That’s different.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know whether I’m driving away with you.”
He nodded.
That answer hurt, but it was not an emergency he could solve by forcing a landing.
Natalie contacted him six days before the protective-order hearing.
She called from an unfamiliar number.
Daniel nearly ignored it.
“Don’t hang up,” she said.
He remained silent.
“I need to talk to you without Mom’s attorney.”
“You have your own attorney.”
“She chose him.”
“You’re thirty-four.”
“That hasn’t mattered in our family and you know it.”
Daniel walked into the apartment hallway so Claire would not hear through the bedroom door.
“What do you want?”
“Mom is going to blame me.”
“For what?”
“For the recording. For not stopping Claire from calling. For drinking. For everything she can make look careless instead of planned.”
“Was it planned?”
Natalie breathed into the phone.
“Answer me.”
“Not like you think.”
“That means yes.”
“She wanted Claire to leave.”
“By hurting her?”
“She wanted Claire to look unreliable. She had been collecting things for weeks.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“What things?”
“Messages. Missed appointments. Videos.”
“What videos?”
“Claire crying. Claire yelling once.”
“When?”
“After Mom took Lily into the dining room during a panic attack.”
“Who recorded it?”
“I did.”
Daniel pressed the phone harder against his ear. “Why?”
“Mom said we might need proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That Claire was unstable.”
“You created the situation and filmed her reaction.”
Natalie’s voice sharpened. “I didn’t create anything.”
“You stood in the nursery.”
“I didn’t touch her.”
“You watched.”
“I was scared of Mom.”
“You were drinking wine.”
“I’m always drinking wine around Mom.”
The sentence came out with bitter humor, then disappeared into silence.
Daniel looked through the stairwell window at the brick wall next door.
“Will you tell the police?” he asked.
“I already gave a statement.”
“A false one.”
“I said Claire pushed Mom.”
“Did you say Lily was in the crib?”
“No.”
“Did you say Mom grabbed Claire first?”
“No.”
“Did you say you kicked the phone?”
Natalie did not answer.
Daniel lowered his voice. “Then call Sergeant Hayes.”
“I need protection.”
“From what?”
“Mom’s going to cut me off.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Claire had been bruised, threatened, and publicly accused. Natalie feared losing money.
Then he remembered the pharmacy, the frozen account, the car owned by the estate company.
Money in the Mercer family was not only comfort. It was permission.
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
“Tell Mom you’ll settle this privately. Convince Claire to drop the order. Then I’ll correct my statement.”
“No.”
“You didn’t even think.”
“I’ve spent my whole life thinking for her. I’m done.”
“If Claire goes forward, Mom will destroy her.”
“She already tried.”
Natalie’s voice lowered. “There are things you don’t know.”
“Then tell the police.”
“I’m telling you.”
“No. You’re selling me information in exchange for Claire’s silence.”
“She’s going to leave you anyway.”
The words landed precisely because Natalie sounded certain.
Daniel looked toward the apartment door.
“Maybe,” he said.
Natalie went quiet.
He continued. “But whether she stays with me is not the price of doing the right thing.”
He ended the call.
Then he stood in the hallway for a long time, listening to someone’s television through the wall.
When he returned inside, Claire was waiting.
“How much did you hear?” he asked.
“Enough.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“You came into the hallway to hide the call.”
“So Lily wouldn’t wake.”
“Daniel.”
He sat down.
Claire’s face held no anger, only fatigue. “You still protect people from information until you decide how they should receive it.”
He looked at his phone. “Natalie said Mom was collecting evidence.”
“What kind?”
He told her.
When he mentioned the video of Claire crying, she closed her eyes.
“I remember that night.”
“What happened?”
“Lily had been screaming for two hours. I asked Evelyn to give her back. She said I was too upset. I yelled.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her she wanted Lily because Lily couldn’t disagree with her yet.”
Despite everything, Daniel made a small sound that might have been a laugh.
Claire looked at him.
“Sorry.”
“No. It was mean.”
“It was also accurate.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Natalie stood near the fireplace with her phone. I thought she was texting.”
“Would the video hurt you?”
“It would look bad.”
“Context matters.”
“You sound like Mara.”
May you like
“She was right.”
Claire studied him. “You’re learning very quickly now that the consequences belong to you.”
