Chapter 5 - Nine Lost Years
Leo took us to a furnished apartment owned by Hart Meridian and used for visiting executives.
Nora approved the security arrangements before we went.
I disliked needing approval to choose a front door.
I liked knowing someone had checked the lock.
Penny walked from room to room with her rabbit.
In the bedroom, she touched the window latch.
“Can this room open from inside?”
Leo crouched beside her.
“Every door here can.”
After she fell asleep, I found him making toast.
He had burned one corner and was scraping it over the sink.
Our father used to do that.
“You have a board meeting?” I asked.
He set down the knife.
“I've been a director for three years.”
“Marcus never told me.”
“You asked him not to send family news. I asked him not to use business to force us into a room.”
I remembered the instruction.
I had written it after Leo's supposed request for more money, furious that he had come back only to take.
“You said I owed you,” I told him.
“That Dad would be ashamed of me.”
His face changed.
“When?”
“The email. Nine years ago.”
He pulled out a chair.
“Evie, I was in treatment.”
I sat carefully because my ribs hurt.
Leo had struggled after our father died.
There had been drinking, debts, one terrible night behind the wheel.
Julian had told me the treatment hadn't lasted.
“I wrote to apologize,” Leo said.
“I didn't ask you for money.”
“Julian showed me your message.”
Leo's jaw moved.
“You wrote back that I was dead to you.”
“I never wrote that.”
The refrigerator hummed between us.
We didn't have the old accounts in front of us.
We didn't have proof.
We had two different memories with my husband standing in the middle of both.
“Why didn't you come?” I asked.
“I did. Once. He met me outside and said you would call the police.”
Tears burned behind my eyes.
“You should have tried again.”
“I know.”
He didn't defend himself.
That made it harder to keep being angry.
“I should have called you directly,” I said.
He slid the toast across the table.
“We're here now.”
My replacement phone buzzed.
Nora had sent photographs of the documents Julian's attorney had just delivered to hers.
May you like
He wanted temporary custody of Penny.
His sworn statement said I had locked our daughter in the basement.
