Chapter 11
For two days, I could not sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Drea smiling beside me while building a prison around my daughter.
I replayed every moment.
Every compliment.
Every offer to help.
Every time she said, “Let me handle Calla tonight.”
Every time I said yes.
Guilt is a cruel room.
It locks from the inside.
Elise found me in the kitchen at 3 a.m.
“You can’t keep doing this.”
“I handed her keys to our life.”
“Yes.”
I looked at her.
She did not soften it.
“You did.”
The truth hurt.
But it also steadied me.
Elise sat across from me.
“And now you are helping take them back.”
“I don’t know if Calla will ever forgive me.”
“She doesn’t have to do it quickly.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I stared at the table.
Elise’s voice lowered.
“Mason, you always wanted pain solved fast. That was one reason we broke.”
I looked up.
She swallowed.
“When I was depressed, you wanted a plan. A doctor. A timeline. A finish line. You didn’t understand that some pain has to be sat with.”
I closed my eyes.
She was right.
“I was scared,” I said.
“I know.”
“I thought if I could fix it, I wouldn’t lose you.”
“And when you couldn’t fix it, you got angry.”
“I did.”
She looked toward Calla’s room.
“Don’t do that to her.”
“I won’t.”
The next morning, I told Calla I had started therapy.
She looked surprised.
“For you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re sad?”
“Because I made mistakes and need help understanding them.”
She nodded slowly.
“Good.”
That one word felt like more grace than I deserved.
Drea’s criminal charges expanded the same week.
Kidnapping.
Assault.
Forgery.
Fraud.
Child endangerment.
Attempted custodial interference.
Grant took a plea and agreed to testify.
Drea’s mother gave interviews calling me cruel.
Drea’s friends posted old photos of her with Calla.
Happy moments.
Curated lies.
Calla saw one by accident.
She stared at the picture for a long time.
Drea holding her at a carnival.
Both smiling.
“Was any of it real?” she asked.
I sat beside her.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
She leaned against me.
I did not move.
I let her choose the distance.
After a while, she whispered, “I hate missing someone who hurt us.”
May you like
Elise sat on her other side.
“That is allowed too.”
