[CHAPTER 12] - Home Was Different Now
We didn't return to our house.
Dad put it up for sale.
I never asked him to keep it.
Nora never wanted to see it again.
Dad rented a smaller house near Hannah's apartment.
It had yellow shutters.
A backyard with one apple tree.
No hidden passages.
Before we moved in, Dad personally checked every vent.
I followed him.
"Anything?"
He shined a flashlight inside.
"Nothing."
"You sure?"
"Completely."
For weeks, I still checked.
So did Nora.
Hannah brought Nora over almost every day.
At first Nora refused to stay overnight anywhere without Hannah.
Then one Friday she asked if she could sleep in my room.
I became so excited I knocked over my juice.
Dad laughed.
It was the first real laugh I had heard from him in weeks.
We built a blanket fort.
Nora slept beside the door.
I slept beside her.
At two in the morning, she woke screaming.
"NO!"
I sat up.
"Nora!"
She kicked at the blankets.
"Don't lock it!"
Dad entered.
Hannah was already calling.
We calmed Nora slowly.
She clung to me.
"It's okay," I whispered.
"No wall."
She looked around.
"No wall."
"No Vivian."
"No Vivian."
Dad stood in the doorway.
He cried without making noise.
The trial preparation started.
Prosecutors had enough evidence to keep Vivian in jail.
But murder was harder to prove.
Mason negotiated.
He admitted Vivian had asked him to obtain the medication used on Maya.
He claimed he didn't know what she planned to do.
Nobody believed that completely.
He also admitted he had helped Vivian steal financial records after Maya died.
In exchange for testimony, prosecutors agreed not to seek the maximum sentence against him.
Hannah hated that.
Dad did too.
But Mason could put Vivian at Maya's house the night she became sick.
He could explain the message.
MAKE SURE SHE DRINKS ALL OF IT.
According to Mason, Vivian prepared a powdered medication and mixed it into a bottle of vitamin drink Maya used after workouts.
Mason had delivered the bottle.
Vivian later made sure Maya drank it.
Maya collapsed that night.
Nora had been asleep upstairs.
That detail devastated Hannah.
Nora had been inside the house while her mother was poisoned.
She had no idea.
Neither had anyone else.
Vivian tried to reach Dad from jail.
He refused every call.
Then a letter arrived.
DANIEL,
YOU KNOW ME.
YOU KNOW I WOULD NEVER HURT ELLIE.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH NORA WAS COMPLICATED.
MAYA WAS SICK LONG BEFORE THAT NIGHT.
HANNAH IS USING YOU.
PLEASE REMEMBER THE WOMAN YOU MARRIED.
V.
Dad read it once.
Then burned it in the fireplace.
I watched.
"Was it from Vivian?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"Things that don't matter."
"Why?"
"Because sometimes people lie because they think if they repeat something enough, you'll doubt what you already know."
I stared at the ashes.
"Do you?"
"Do I what?"
"Doubt."
Dad crouched.
"No."
Then he corrected himself.
"I doubt myself."
"Why?"
"Because I brought Vivian into our life."
I didn't know what to say.
So I hugged him.
His arms closed around me.
"You saved Nora," he whispered.
"I gave her bread."
"You did much more."
I didn't feel brave.
I had cried.
I had lied.
I had been scared almost every minute.
Years later, Dad explained that courage isn't the absence of fear.
At four, I didn't need the definition.
I only knew Nora was alive.
The weeks passed.
Nora started school again.
Not Cedar Grove.
A new school near Hannah.
The first morning, she refused to enter.
I held her hand.
"I'm going too."
My preschool was in another building.
I didn't care.
Hannah laughed through tears.
"Ellie, you're not enrolled here."
"I can sit with Nora."
Nora smiled.
Then she walked inside by herself.
That afternoon, she came out holding a picture she drew.
Four people stood beneath a sun.
Nora.
Hannah.
Me.
Dad.
I pointed at Dad.
"Why's Daddy there?"
She shrugged.
"He's family."
Dad overheard.
He turned away quickly.
Again, adults cried about everything.
Our families slowly became one strange little circle.
Not because anyone planned it.
Because surviving Vivian connected us.
Then court papers arrived.
Vivian's trial date was set.
The prosecutor wanted both Nora and me to testify.
Dad immediately said no.
Hannah hesitated.
Nora heard them arguing.
"I want to."
Everyone stopped.
Hannah knelt.
"You don't have to."
"I know."
"You can tell the therapist. They can use recordings."
Nora shook her head.
"Vivian always said nobody would believe me."
Her small hands tightened.
"I want her to see people believe me."
Dad looked at me.
I knew what he was thinking.
I spoke before he asked.
"I'll go too."
"No," Dad said.
"I want to."
"Ellie."
"She said you'd send me away."
His face tightened.
"I want to tell them you didn't."
The room became quiet.
Dad looked at Hannah.
Then Nora.
Then me.
He couldn't protect us by making every choice for us.
Vivian had already tried that.
So Dad did something difficult.
He listened.
"Okay," he whispered.
"But only if the child specialist says you're ready."
Nora reached for my hand.
I took hers.
May you like
Vivian had spent months trying to keep us silent.
Soon, she would sit in a courtroom and hear our voices.
