Chapter 6
We did not go back to the new house right away.
Calla refused.
She tried to be brave about it, but her hands shook when I mentioned packing.
“The pool house is there,” she whispered.
So I rented a quiet apartment near the hospital.
Two bedrooms.
Plain walls.
No pool.
No locked doors outside.
Elise took the smaller room.
I slept on the couch.
Calla slept wherever she could see both of us.
The first night, she dragged her blanket into the hallway.
I found her curled between the bedroom doors.
“What are you doing, sweetheart?”
“If I sleep here, nobody can take Mom.”
Elise heard.
She came out and sank to the floor.
Calla climbed into her lap.
I sat across from them.
The hallway light buzzed softly.
None of us moved for a long time.
The next day, Nina arrived with more bad news.
“Drea filed a statement from jail.”
I laughed once.
“What does she claim now?”
“That Elise attacked her. That she locked Elise in the pool house temporarily after Elise threatened Calla.”
Elise’s face went blank.
Calla whispered, “No.”
Nina looked at me.
“She also claims you knew Elise was coming.”
“What?”
“She says this was staged to ruin her reputation before the wedding.”
I almost admired the madness of it.
Almost.
Then Nina opened her tablet.
“But we have something better.”
She played footage from the backyard camera.
Drea had forgotten the camera angled toward the pool house.
The video showed her dragging Elise by the arm the night before the party.
Elise fought.
Drea held something in her hand.
A small black device.
A stun gun.
Elise collapsed.
Calla made a sound like she had been punched.
I grabbed the tablet and turned it away.
But she had seen enough.
“Drea hurt Mom?”
Elise reached for her.
Calla backed away.
Not from Elise.
From all of it.
“Everybody lied,” she said.
I stood.
“No, baby—”
“You did too.”
The words landed cleanly.
I stopped.
Calla’s face crumpled.
“You said Mom didn’t call because she needed space.”
I swallowed.
“I was wrong.”
“You said Drea loved me.”
“I was wrong.”
“You said I was safe.”
I could barely breathe.
“I was wrong.”
Calla ran into the bathroom and locked the door.
Elise looked at me.
Not angry.
Worse.
May you like
Heartbroken.
“Now we start telling the truth,” she said.
