Chapter 11 - The House She Wanted

The petition said I had cornered Rebecca in the chapel.

It said I had screamed, threatened her, and used Emily to humiliate her.

It said our home was Rebecca’s only safe place to live.

My home.

The place Hannah and I had bought before Emily was born.

Rebecca had moved in nine months earlier.

Now she was trying to turn the front door into something I needed permission to approach.

“Can she do this?” I asked.

“She can file,” Nora said.

“That doesn’t mean the court accepts her account.”

I looked at the attached photograph.

A red mark on Rebecca’s upper arm.

“She says I grabbed her.”

“Did you?”

“No.”

“Then we establish what happened.”

Father Martin provided the chapel security recordings.

Luke gave a statement.

So did Carol Voss.

The footage showed Rebecca reaching for me.

It showed me stepping away.

It showed Emily clinging to my neck.

There was no grab.

But Nora insisted we avoid any direct contact.

“You don’t help Emily by giving Rebecca a new incident to describe.”

I stayed at Luke’s.

We collected our belongings through an arranged pickup while officers were present.

In Emily’s room, I found the stuffed rabbit shoved inside a garbage bag under the bed.

One ear was torn.

Emily held it against her chest without saying anything.

Then she opened her closet.

“Where’s Mommy’s blue sweater?”

I looked through every drawer.

Gone.

Rebecca watched from the hallway.

“I donated some old clothes.”

Emily’s face crumpled.

“It wasn’t yours.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes.

The officer looked up.

I stepped between them.

“Go downstairs with Uncle Luke.”

Emily obeyed.

Rebecca folded her arms.

“You’re really choosing this life?”

I stared at her.

“What life?”

“Being sad forever.

Building everything around a little girl who won’t let go.”

For the first time, I understood how she saw us.

An obstacle and a prize.

I walked away.

At the foot of the stairs, Luke handed me a sealed envelope he’d found behind the kitchen calendar.

Inside was Rebecca’s wedding-day schedule.

Ceremony.

Certificate photograph.

Emily pickup.

Airport.

Beside the pickup time, someone had written:

Do not let Hannah’s mother interfere.

I called my mother-in-law.

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