Chapter 8: What the Photo Showed
I almost didn't open it.
I lay there in the dark with the phone in my hand and the screen glowing and told myself I didn't have to look.
That whatever she had sent, it could wait until morning.
That I had already absorbed enough for one day.
Then I opened it.
It was a screenshot of a conversation.
Kayla's messages on one side, Brandon's on the other.
The timestamp at the top showed the exchange had taken place eleven days ago — the day after my accident.
I read it slowly.
Kayla: *Is she going to be okay*
Brandon: *They don't know yet.
Lung collapsed.
They're watching her.*
Kayla: *God.
Brandon.
What do we do.*
Brandon: *Nothing changes.
We stay quiet until we know more.*
Kayla: *If she doesn't make it —*
Brandon: *Kayla.
Stop.*
Kayla: *I'm just saying.
If she doesn't —*
Brandon: *I said stop.
We don't talk about that.*
A gap of several hours.
Then:
Kayla: *I can't stop thinking about it.
If something happens to her, Lily needs somewhere to go.
Her dad's not in the picture.
Your name isn't on anything.*
Brandon: *I know.*
Kayla: *I could be her emergency contact.
As her aunt.
That's not unreasonable.*
Brandon: *Let's not get ahead of ourselves.*
Kayla: *I'm not getting ahead of anything.
I'm being practical.
We need to think about what happens if Nicole doesn't come home.*
I read the last line three times.
*We need to think about what happens if Nicole doesn't come home.*
I sat up in bed.
My ribs pulled.
I barely felt it.
I read the whole exchange again from the top.
Then I took a screenshot of the screenshot.
Then I forwarded it to my own email.
Then I sat in the dark bedroom in the apartment where I had lived for six years and thought about my sister sitting somewhere with her phone, having sent me this.
Why had she sent it?
Not guilt.
I had seen Kayla's face in that bedroom.
That wasn't guilt.
She had sent it because she was angry at Brandon.
Something had shifted between them since this morning.
Something had cracked.
And Kayla, being Kayla, had reached for the thing most likely to cause damage.
She had sent me the conversation not to apologize.
She had sent it to hurt him.
And in doing so, she had handed me something I hadn't expected to have.
I forwarded the screenshot to my mother with no message.
Then I got up, went to the kitchen, and made myself a glass of water.
I stood at the counter and drank it slowly.
Then I went back to bed and, somehow, slept.
May you like
In the morning, I had three missed calls from Kayla, one from Brandon, and a voicemail from a number I didn't recognize — a woman who identified herself as Ruth's daughter, said her name was Patricia, said she was a family law attorney, and that she had some time on Tuesday if I wanted to come in.
I called Patricia back before I made coffee.
