Chapter 12
The trial did not begin for six months.
In that time, we built a life that felt temporary at first.
Then less temporary.
Then real.
Elise moved into an apartment two blocks from mine.
Calla spent time with both of us.
Not because a court forced a schedule.
Because Calla wanted both doors open.
Some nights she stayed with Elise.
Some nights with me.
Some nights we all ate dinner together and nobody knew how to leave.
Those nights were the hardest.
And the sweetest.
Old love does not vanish because paperwork says it should.
It waits in ordinary places.
A shared joke.
A coffee made the right way.
A look across the table when Calla says something exactly like she did as a toddler.
But we did not rush.
Too much had been broken by people pretending certainty.
Drea’s team tried to use our closeness against us.
They claimed Elise and I had created the pool house story to reconcile and steal public sympathy.
Nina laughed when she read it.
Then she stopped laughing when Drea produced a witness.
My former assistant, Claire.
Claire claimed Elise had contacted me before the party.
She claimed I knew Elise was coming.
She claimed I told Drea to keep quiet because I wanted a dramatic rescue.
It was absurd.
It was also dangerous.
Because lies become poisonous when they wear familiar faces.
Claire had worked for me for four years.
She knew my schedule.
My habits.
My passwords once.
Ramirez found the reason within days.
Drea had paid her.
Not once.
Monthly.
For nearly a year.
Claire had been feeding Drea information about me, Calla, Elise, everything.
I met Claire in a conference room with Nina present.
She cried before sitting down.
“I needed money.”
I stared at her.
“You sold my daughter’s safety.”
“I didn’t know it would go that far.”
“People always say that after it goes that far.”
She covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” I said. “You’re caught.”
Her testimony collapsed after bank records surfaced.
But Calla heard enough to ask a new question.
“How many people lied to us?”
I wanted to say not many.
I wanted to comfort.
Instead, I said, “Too many.”
She nodded.
“Then we make a small circle.”
Elise smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
Calla took a marker and drew one on paper.
Inside, she wrote three names.
Mom.
Dad.
Me.
May you like
Then after a long pause, she added:
Nina.
