Chapter 6: After the Door Closed
Olivia fed Emma a bottle at the kitchen table while Adrian and Clara sat across from each other in the living room.
Neither of them spoke for almost a full minute.
Adrian set Vanessa's phone screenshots on the coffee table.
He had taken photographs of them before she left.
"The account withdrawals," he said.
"Eleven thousand dollars."
"I can explain every one of them." Clara reached into her bag and pulled out her own phone.
She opened her banking app and turned the screen toward him.
"January.
I paid the deposit on my mother's memory care facility.
She was diagnosed in December.
I didn't tell you because she asked me not to tell anyone yet.
February and March.
Monthly contributions to her care costs while the insurance review was pending.
April.
The legal consultation fee and a payment to a private counselor I've been seeing since January."
She set the phone on the table between them.
"I should have told you.
All of it.
I know that."
Adrian looked at the screen.
He scrolled slowly.
"Your mother has dementia?"
"Early stage.
She's still mostly herself.
But she won't be forever." Clara's voice was quiet.
"I've been terrified.
And I've been handling it alone because she begged me to, and because I didn't want to add more weight to what we were already carrying."
Adrian set the phone down.
He put his face in his hands for a moment.
"Clara."
"I know."
"That's not — you should have told me.
That's not something you carry alone."
"I know that now."
He looked up.
The red mark on her face had faded slightly but it was still visible.
He looked at it the way a person looks at something they cannot undo.
"I am so sorry," he said.
"For what I did.
For believing her.
For that one second where I—"
"You were scared for Emma."
"That is not an excuse."
"No," she agreed.
"It isn't.
But I understand it."
He reached across the table.
She looked at his hand for a moment before she took it.
"Who is Vanessa?" Clara asked quietly.
"I mean really.
Because what she did tonight wasn't impulsive.
She had all of that ready.
The screenshots, the law firm photograph, the name Daniel.
She had it organized."
"We've been friends since university," Adrian said.
"Or I thought we were."
"Has she ever—" Clara stopped.
Chose her words.
"Has she ever said anything to you about us?
About me?
Before tonight?"
Adrian was quiet for a moment.
The kind of quiet that means yes.
"She said you were too private.
That it wasn't healthy.
That people who keep secrets usually have reasons." He exhaled.
"I thought she was just being protective."
"She was building a case," Clara said.
"The same way I told Olivia.
She has been building it for a long time." She paused.
"Adrian.
The camera in the living room.
The one Olivia used tonight.
How long has it been there?"
"Eight months.
Since the break-in on the street last year."
"Does Vanessa know about it?"
He thought.
"I don't think I ever mentioned it."
Clara nodded slowly.
"Then she didn't know.
Which means tonight didn't go the way she planned."
From the kitchen, Olivia's voice floated in: "Emma's asleep.
Should I put her down?"
"Please," Adrian called back.
He looked at Clara.
"What do you think she does next?" he said.
May you like
Clara looked toward the front door.
"I think we find out very soon."
