Chapter 4: The Version They Told Everyone Else
My aunt Sandra called at seven forty-five in the morning.
I was in the hospital cafeteria with a cup of coffee I hadn't touched, waiting for the doctor to come by for Lily's morning check.
Marcus had stayed the night in the chair beside her bed.
I had walked down here because I needed five minutes where I wasn't performing calm for anyone.
Sandra was my mother's older sister.
She had always been the family's long-distance conscience — the one who called on birthdays, sent cards at Christmas, and believed, genuinely believed, that our family was a good one.
"Naomi, I just got off the phone with your mother."
"I figured."
"She's very worried about you."
I set the coffee down.
"About me."
"She says you've been under a lot of stress.
That you overreacted to something that was an accident and now you've involved the police and it's tearing the family apart."
I looked at the table.
Someone had left a sugar packet torn open and empty beside the napkin dispenser.
"Lily has a fractured leg, Sandra."
"I know, and that's terrible, but your mother says —"
"Carla swung a steel skewer at my nine-year-old daughter.
There is a witness.
I filed a report.
Those are the facts."
Silence.
"A witness?" Sandra said.
"The neighbor next door.
She saw the whole thing from her kitchen window."
More silence.
Longer this time.
"Naomi, your mother didn't mention a witness."
"No," I said.
"She wouldn't."
Sandra went quiet again in a way that felt different from before.
Less defending.
More thinking.
"What exactly did your mother tell you?" I asked.
"She said Lily had been acting up all afternoon.
That she said something very rude to Carla.
That Carla lost her temper and there was a scuffle and Lily fell and hurt herself.
She said you called the paramedics and made it into a scene and now you've filed a police report over what was essentially a family disagreement."
A scuffle.
Lily fell and hurt herself.
I repeated those words in my head once.
"She fell," I said.
"That's what your mother said."
"Sandra.
Lily has a fracture consistent with a direct impact.
The doctor used those exact words.
Direct impact.
She didn't fall.
She was hjt."
The cafeteria was starting to fill up.
A nurse two tables over was eating toast and reading something on her phone.
Ordinary morning.
Ordinary world.
"Your mother also said," Sandra continued, and her voice had changed now, quieter, more careful, "that Marcus has been pushing you to cut off the family for years.
That this is really about him."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"She said that."
"I'm just telling you what she told me."
"Marcus drove to this hospital the moment I called him.
He slept in a chair next to Lily all night.
He has never once told me to cut off my family.
Not once."
"I believe you."
"Do you?"
A pause.
"Yes.
I do." Sandra's voice was softer now.
"I think I've been getting one version of a lot of things for a long time."
That sentence landed quietly.
I didn't push it.
"I need to get back upstairs," I said.
"Naomi." She stopped.
"I'm sorry.
I should have called you first instead of letting your mother frame the whole thing before I heard your side."
"It's okay."
"It isn't.
But I'll do better."
I took the elevator back up.
Marcus was awake, sitting beside Lily's bed reading something on his phone.
He looked up when I came in.
"Your aunt Sandra called me," I said.
"I know.
Mine did too." He set his phone down.
"My aunt Carol.
Your mother apparently called her last night to explain the situation."
I stared at him.
"Your aunt Carol."
"She doesn't even have Carol's number.
She must have gotten it from someone."
"What did Carol say?"
"She called to ask if I'd been pressuring you to cut off your family." He said it without expression.
"I told her what happened.
She was quiet for a long time and then she said, 'Marcus, I'm so sorry about Lily.'"
I sat down in the chair across from him.
"They're calling everyone," I said.
"Yes."
"Before the investigation even starts."
"Yes."
Lily stirred in the bed.
We both went still.
She settled back into sleep.
"They're trying to build a wall," Marcus said quietly.
"So that by the time anyone official asks questions, everyone in the family already has the other version."
I knew he was right.
May you like
What I didn't know yet was that Carla had already taken one more step.
And it was worse than the phone calls.
