Chapter 5: What Brooke Finally Said
Brooke arrived at Carol Vance's office at two in the afternoon.
She came alone.
No attorney.
No Diane.
She was wearing clean clothes this time, her hair pulled back, but her hands gave her away — she set her bag on the chair beside her and then immediately picked it up again and held it in her lap.
Carol sat across from her.
I sat at the far end of the table, close enough to be present, far enough not to crowd her.
"Thank you for coming," Carol said.
"I haven't decided anything yet," Brooke said.
"That's fine.
You don't have to decide anything today." Carol folded her hands.
"I just want to ask you some questions.
You can answer or not answer.
Nothing you say here today is recorded."
Brooke looked at me.
"Why is she here?"
"Because I asked her to be," Carol said.
"And because what you say affects her daughter."
Brooke looked back at the table.
"The livestream," Carol said.
"You ended it manually at 8:47 p.m.
Four seconds after the incident."
Brooke said nothing.
"The platform has preserved the data.
The footage exists." Carol's voice didn't change.
"I want to understand what you saw before you ended it."
A long silence.
"I saw my mother str*ke Lily," Brooke said.
"Across the face.
Hard."
The room was very quiet.
"And you ended the stream."
"I panicked." Brooke's grip on her bag tightened.
"The relatives were still watching.
I didn't know what to do."
"Did your mother ask you to end it?"
Brooke's jaw moved.
"Not in words."
"What does that mean?"
"She looked at me." Brooke's voice dropped.
"Right after it happened.
She looked straight at the camera and then at me.
I knew what she wanted."
Carol wrote something down.
"Brooke, did your mother contact you after Emily left the party?"
"She called me four times before midnight.
She told me what to say if anyone asked.
She told me Emily had been drinking.
She told me Lily had been fussing all evening and Emily had been rough with her earlier."
I felt something cold move through my chest.
"None of that is true," I said.
Brooke looked at me directly for the first time.
"I know it's not true."
"Did you repeat those things to anyone?" Carol asked.
"To her attorney.
On the phone.
That night." Brooke's voice was flat now, the flatness of someone who has already judged themselves and is past the point of softening it.
"I told him what she told me to say."
Carol set her pen down.
"Brooke.
You understand that constitutes a false statement made to an attorney in an active legal proceeding."
"Yes."
"And you're telling me this now because—"
"Because I watched the video back," Brooke said.
"The part I recorded before I ended it.
I've watched it eleven times." She looked at her hands.
"Lily didn't do anything.
She was just sitting there.
The bowl tipped because Mom sl@mmed her hand on the table.
Lily flinched and the bowl went over." She stopped.
"She's two years old."
No one spoke.
"I also called Claire," Brooke said.
"Last night.
I hadn't spoken to her in four years." She looked up.
"She told me about Marcus.
What Mom did to him."
"Jason's nephew," I said.
"He's seven now.
He still doesn't like loud voices." Brooke pressed her lips together.
"Claire said she tried to tell Jason when it happened.
He told her she was exaggerating.
That Mom had a temper but she loved the kids."
I thought about Jason's fork, still raised above his plate.
The piece of steak between the tines.
The way his eyes had moved to his phone.
"I have the video," Brooke said.
"The full recording, before I ended the stream.
I saved it to a private folder.
I didn't delete it." She reached into her bag and set a USB drive on the table.
"I've been carrying this for two days."
Carol looked at it.
Then she looked at Brooke.
"You drove here alone," Carol said.
"Without telling your mother."
"Yes."
"Does she know you're here?"
"My phone has been off since this morning." Brooke's chin came up slightly.
"She'll figure it out."
Carol picked up the USB drive and set it carefully to one side.
"I'll need a signed statement from you.
Everything you've told me today.
The phone calls.
What your mother instructed you to say.
The video."
"I know," Brooke said.
"This will change your relationship with your mother permanently."
Brooke let out a breath that had been held a long time.
"My relationship with my mother changed the second she looked at that camera."
After Brooke left, Carol and I sat alone in the conference room.
"The video," I said.
"Combined with the medical report, Patricia's testimony, and Brooke's statement — yes." Carol turned the USB drive once in her fingers.
"Diane's filing collapses.
Every claim she made about you being unstable, about Lily being unsafe in your care — it collapses."
"What happens to Diane?"
Carol set the drive down.
"That depends on what the DCFS visit turns up tomorrow, and whether the mandatory report triggers a referral to the State's Attorney's office." She paused.
"But I want you to understand something, Emily.
The goal of tomorrow's visit is Lily.
Not Diane.
Answer every question.
Show them the apartment.
Let them see how Lily is doing."
"She asked for her bunny this morning," I said.
"She ate all her breakfast.
She laughed at something Dana did with a napkin."
Carol almost smiled.
"Tell them that."
I picked up my bag and stood.
"Carol," I said.
"Jason texted me again this morning.
He said Diane is willing to drop the filing if I come home."
Carol looked at me steadily.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing yet."
"Don't respond," she said.
"Let me handle it.
Any communication from you to Jason right now can be used to suggest you're open to negotiation.
You're not open to negotiation."
"No," I said.
"I'm not."
I walked out into the afternoon.
The lake was visible at the end of the street, flat and grey and very wide.
My phone buzzed.
Dana.
*"Lily just said 'Mama go bye-bye' and then laughed.
She's fine.
Come home when you're ready."*
I stood on the sidewalk and read it twice.
May you like
Then I started walking toward the parking structure.
Behind me, somewhere across the city, Diane Bennett's phone was about to ring.
