Chapter 4 - Brett Had Told Eleanor About Mara
Brett believed Mara’s death was partly his fault.
That was the first thing we had to pull apart.
He sat beside Olivia on the guest-room bed, crying into his hands.
“Aunt Mara asked me questions,” he said.
“What questions?”
“How long Grandma locked the door. What she said. If Calvin knew.”
“And you answered?”
He nodded.
Mara and Daniel had apparently seen enough of Eleanor’s behavior that they planned to call Brett’s parents the next morning and insist Brett stop staying with Eleanor unsupervised.
They also planned to bring Brett to my house for the night.
Safe neutral ground.
Eleanor found out before they could.
“How?” I asked.
Brett looked ashamed.
“I told her.”
“Why?”
“She asked why Aunt Mara kept talking to me.”
He wiped his face.
“I said Aunt Mara was recording stuff.”
That was enough.
Eleanor now knew Mara had evidence.
Brett continued in fragments.
There had been an argument in the library.
Mara told Eleanor she was done letting adults call humiliation “discipline.”
Daniel backed her.
Eleanor accused Mara of turning Brett against his own family.
Then Mara said she and Daniel were leaving.
“With Olivia?” I asked.
Brett shook his head.
“Olivia was with you that night.”
I remembered.
She had been asleep at my house because Mara and Daniel were supposed to pick her up later.
They never did.
I swallowed hard.
“What did Eleanor say when they left?”
Brett closed his eyes.
Then repeated the line exactly:
“She said, ‘If they get to Stallone with that recorder, this family is finished.’”
That was the first time my name entered the story.
Mara and Daniel weren’t just leaving Eleanor.
They were coming to me.
May you like
And somebody had made sure they never arrived.
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