Chapter 6
Renata changed tactics.
Tears.
Real-looking ones.
She sat on the sofa and covered her face.
“I loved Olivia.”
Grant watched.
Lily watched too.
That mattered.
Renata continued.
“She was unstable after Lily was born.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“Don’t.”
“She was paranoid.”
“Don’t.”
“She thought everyone was against her.”
Grant stepped closer.
Renata lowered her hands.
“What? You want the truth or the saint?”
Grant said nothing.
She continued.
“She followed Marcus.”
“Why?”
“Because she was jealous.”
“Of?”
Renata paused.
Wrong path.
Marcus shouted through the study door:
“Stop talking.”
Grant looked toward him.
Then at Renata.
“Keep going.”
Renata’s eyes hardened.
“Olivia thought Marcus was using your house.”
“For what?”
“She never proved anything.”
“What did she see?”
Silence.
Grant played the recording again.
I saw who you brought into our house.
Renata’s jaw tightened.
Grant asked:
“Who?”
“No one.”
Lily spoke.
“Gray man.”
Everyone stopped.
Grant turned.
Lily stood beside the stairs.
“Gray man?”
She nodded.
“Mommy said hide.”
Grant crouched.
“Where?”
Lily pointed beneath the dining table.
The same place she had hidden earlier.
A memory.
Not coincidence.
“Did you see the man?”
Lily nodded.
“Gray hair?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know him?”
Lily thought.
Then:
“Ring man.”
Grant frowned.
Marcus shouted:
“She’s making it up!”
Grant looked toward the study.
He hadn’t told Marcus what she said.
Yet he reacted immediately.
Grant walked to the door.
Opened it.
Marcus stood between two guards.
“What does ring man mean?”
Marcus laughed.
“How would I know?”
“You heard her.”
“So?”
“You panicked.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“You’re building a case from toddler nonsense.”
Grant’s voice lowered.
“Careful.”
Marcus smiled.
“Or what?”
The resemblance to Renata was obvious now.
Same contempt.
Same belief that cruelty sounded like strength.
Marcus continued.
“Your kid spent two years mute because everyone rewarded it.”
Lily heard him.
Grant’s face changed.
Marcus smiled wider.
“Maybe if you’d stopped babying her, she’d have spoken sooner.”
Grant stepped forward.
Marcus wanted the hit.
Grant stopped himself.
Then Lily said:
“Mommy hit floor.”
Silence.
Grant turned.
Lily’s face had gone pale.
“Renata pushed.”
Renata snapped:
“Enough!”
Lily jumped.
Renata stood.
“She was two.”
Her voice became vicious.
“She couldn’t even talk properly then.”
Grant stared at her.
Renata realized what she had said.
Lily had been two.
Yes.
But Grant had never told Renata what Lily could or could not say that night.
Renata knew.
Because she had been there.
Grant asked:
“How do you know what Lily could say after Olivia fell?”
Renata’s lips parted.
No answer.
Lily whispered:
“Renata said shh.”
Grant turned toward his daughter.
Lily touched her own mouth.
“Shh or Daddy goes too.”
May you like
Grant stopped breathing.
Two years of silence suddenly had a voice behind it.
