Chapter 10 - BACK TO THE HOUSE
The house looked smaller than I remembered.
Same white siding.
Same porch.
Same maple tree.
Same basement window where Lily once crawled out after Dad grounded her.
My childhood lived there.
So did every lie that ruined us.
I walked to the front door carrying the cassette.
Lily walked beside me.
Clara stayed in the van with Mara two houses away.
That was the plan.
The door opened before I knocked.
Dad stood there.
No gun visible.
“Come in.”
“Where’s Eva?”
“Safe.”
“Let me see her.”
“After.”
Lily stepped forward.
“You look old.”
Dad smiled.
“So do you.”
She looked like she wanted to kill him.
We entered.
The smell hit me.
Furniture polish.
Coffee.
The cedar chest Mom used to keep blankets in.
Nothing had changed.
That felt obscene.
“Eva!”
“Daddy!”
Her voice came from upstairs.
I moved.
Dad drew a pistol from behind his back.
“Stop.”
Lily whispered, “You coward.”
He looked at her.
“You were always the difficult one.”
“You kept me locked away for eighteen years.”
“I kept you alive.”
“You stole my life.”
“You should have stayed out of my office.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I held up the tape.
“This is what you want?”
His eyes locked onto it.
“Put it on the table.”
“Eva first.”
“No.”
“Then no tape.”
He smiled.
“You were never good at bargaining.”
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
Eva appeared at the top of the stairs.
A man held her shoulder.
Not Evan.
Dr. Bell.
I stared.
“Mara arrested you.”
Bell smiled.
“She arrested someone.”
My stomach sank.
The man taken from Millbrook had been wearing Bell’s coat.
Dark hallway.
Chaos.
Mara never checked his face closely before paramedics transported him.
A setup.
Dad had expected us.
Bell pushed Eva down one step.
“Easy.”
I raised both hands.
“Okay.”
Lily leaned close to me.
“The furnace.”
I understood.
We needed the original recording.
We needed proof that couldn’t be explained away.
Dad pointed toward the basement.
“Let’s finish this where it started.”
We walked downstairs.
The concrete walls triggered memories immediately.
Uncle David.
Blood.
Dad shouting.
Mom crying.
At the bottom stood the old furnace.
Dad motioned with the gun.
“Open it.”
I pulled the rusted panel.
Inside was an envelope.
And another cassette.
Lily smiled faintly.
Dad hadn’t found it.
He thought I knew where it was.
Now we all did.
He raised the pistol.
“Give it to me.”
I held it behind my back.
“Let Eva go.”
Dad sighed.
“You always make simple things difficult.”
Then a voice came from the darkness behind the furnace.
“Thomas.”
Dad froze.
So did I.
A woman stepped into view.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
A scar along one cheek.
My heart stopped.
May you like
Because I had buried that woman six years earlier.
“Mom?”
