Chapter 3 - What Penny Said
Penny shrank against my legs.
Julian smiled as if the room held guests instead of police.
“Sweetheart, come here.”
Officer Ruiz stepped between him and the stairs.
“Give them some space.”
“That's my daughter.”
“And she needs space.”
Leo came down slowly, palms open.
“I'm your mom's brother,” he told Penny.
“You don't have to hug me.”
She studied his face.
Then mine.
“You have the same eyes.”
“She got the better ones.”
It wasn't funny, but Penny loosened her grip enough to let him place his coat around her.
He didn't ask me why I had stayed.
He didn't say he had warned me.
He put one hand under my elbow and helped me climb.
At the top, Vanessa stood near the wine room with her arms folded.
“This is getting ridiculous,” she said.
“Evelyn attacked me first.”
Ruiz turned toward her.
“We'll speak separately.”
“I saw everything,” Julian said.
“So did I,” Alan murmured.
Julian looked at him.
One glance.
Alan dropped his eyes.
I knew that glance.
It had ended arguments at our dinner table for years.
The paramedic asked permission before touching my face.
That small courtesy nearly undid me.
I answered questions while Penny sat beside my stretcher, gripping the rabbit so tightly its stitched mouth twisted.
“Mommy didn't scare me,” she said suddenly.
Everybody stopped.
She looked at Ruiz, not her father.
“Daddy wouldn't stop.”
Julian took a step forward.
“Penny, you don't understand—”
Ruiz raised her hand.
“Enough.”
I reached for my daughter.
“You haven't done anything wrong.”
Her mouth trembled.
“I ran downstairs.”
“I know.”
“Did that make it worse?”
“No, baby. None of this is your fault.”
Julian began talking about his attorney.
He was still talking when an officer told him to turn around.
At the ambulance, he called my name.
I looked back before I could help it.
“Think about what you're destroying.”
For once, I did.
The dinners where I apologized for his temper.
The friendships I let die because he disliked my friends.
The little girl learning to measure danger by her father's footsteps.
“I am,” I said.
The doors closed.
My phone had been left upstairs, so Marcus called Leo's.
My brother listened, then glanced at me.
“What?” I asked.
He hesitated.
I couldn't bear another man deciding what I could handle.
“Tell me.”
May you like
Leo handed me the phone.
“Evelyn,” Marcus said, “a transfer request bearing your signature reached Hart Meridian this afternoon.”
