Chapter 5 - Erin
Erin Keene arrived wearing sunglasses even though it was raining.
She stood in the doorway of my hospital room for several seconds before stepping inside.
Neither of us knew what to say.
Finally she looked at my cast.
Her face changed.
“That side?”
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
She slowly sat down.
“Mine was the right.”
That was how we introduced ourselves.
Not by jobs.
Not by hometowns.
Not by the man we had both married.
By which leg Luke had damaged.
Rebecca stayed in the room at Erin’s request.
Detective Hale waited outside.
Erin removed her sunglasses.
There were lines around her eyes that made her look older than the photograph by the lake.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You didn’t do this.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“But I knew what he was.”
“Did you?”
The question came out harsher than I intended.
Erin didn’t flinch.
“Eventually.”
“Why didn’t you report him?”
“I did.”
My anger disappeared.
She continued.
“I just didn’t finish.”
“What happened?”
She took a long breath.
“When I met him, he was Evan.”
She almost smiled.
“Evan was charming.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
“He remembered everything I said.”
Same.
“He made me feel like nobody had ever paid attention to me before.”
Same.
“He brought coffee to my office.”
Same.
“He fixed things in my apartment without being asked.”
Same.
“He told me his mother was difficult but loyal.”
I nearly laughed.
Erin noticed.
“Yeah.”
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
I frowned.
She leaned back.
“That’s what took me years to understand. He didn’t change. The things I thought were love became weapons.”
“Like what?”
“He remembered everything I said because information was useful.”
My stomach tightened.
“He fixed things because he wanted access.”
Another.
“He wanted joint finances because he called it trust.”
Another.
“He criticized friends because he called it protecting our marriage.”
Another.
“And every time I objected, he said I was becoming someone he didn’t recognize.”
I whispered, “He says that to me.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Detective Hale played part of your recording.”
I looked toward Rebecca.
She nodded.
Erin’s eyes filled with tears.
“When I heard his voice, I was thirty years old again.”
She rubbed her wrist unconsciously.
“I remember the porch.”
“What happened?”
“We argued about money.”
“Your condo?”
She looked surprised.
“You know about that?”
“Yes.”
Erin nodded slowly.
“My grandmother left it to me.”
I nearly stopped breathing.
Of course.
The pattern went deeper.
“He wanted me to sell.”
“Why?”
“He said we should buy something together.”
“Did you?”
“I sold it.”
Her mouth twisted.
“And somehow every offer on the new house fell through.”
“What happened to the money?”
“Evan said he invested it.”
“Northgate?”
“It wasn’t called that then.”
“What was it?”
“Cedar Ridge Capital.”
Rebecca wrote the name down.
“Did Celina participate?”
Erin laughed bitterly.
“Celina participated in everything.”
The night of the porch injury, Erin had discovered that almost sixty thousand dollars had been moved without her permission.
She confronted Luke.
Evan.
Whatever name belonged to him then.
He told her she was confused.
She demanded bank statements.
Celina arrived twenty minutes later.
Not because Erin called her.
Because Luke had.
“They spent an hour explaining my own money to me.”
Erin’s eyes hardened.
“I finally told him I was leaving.”
“What happened?”
“He followed me outside.”
She paused.
“I remember his hand on my shoulder.”
My own shoulder tightened.
“I remember turning around.”
Then nothing.
She woke at the bottom of four porch steps.
Her ankle shattered.
Two bones fractured.
Luke called the ambulance himself.
He told everyone she had been drinking.
Celina produced an open wine bottle.
“But you hadn’t been drinking.”
“No.”
“Where did the bottle come from?”
“I still don’t know.”
The hospital toxicology report showed no alcohol.
Yet Luke kept repeating the story.
She was embarrassed.
She was unstable.
She was under stress.
She had fallen.
By the time a police officer tried to speak to her privately, Luke had already convinced her that accusing him would destroy both of their lives.
“So I lied.”
She looked directly at me.
“I said I fell.”
“What made you leave?”
“Something his father said.”
“Barron?”
“Yes.”
That surprised me.
“What?”
Erin stared at the rain streaking the window.
“He came to see me when Evan and Celina were out.”
“What did he say?”
“‘Get out before they make you unable to.’”
Every hair on my arms rose.
“He knew.”
“He knew enough.”
“Why didn’t he report them?”
Erin smiled sadly.
“Same reason I didn’t.”
“Fear?”
“Cowardice.”
The word hung between us.
I thought of Barron standing in my kitchen.
Shouldn’t we take her to the emergency room?
He had known.
Maybe not the specifics.
But he had watched this story before.
Erin continued.
“I left two weeks later.”
“How?”
“I told Evan I forgave him.”
I stared at her.
“I acted exactly the way he wanted.”
“What did you do?”
“I became obedient.”
For thirteen days, Erin stopped arguing.
She apologized to Celina.
She gave Luke access to everything.
She smiled.
Cooked.
Asked permission.
Then one morning, while they believed she was at physical therapy, she went directly to a domestic violence advocate.
She disappeared that afternoon.
“What about your money?”
“Gone.”
“Why didn’t you sue?”
“I wanted my life more than my condo.”
I understood.
Then she reached into her purse.
“I kept something.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
Erin placed a small flash drive on the table.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Copies of files from Evan’s computer.”
My heart jumped.
“Financial?”
“Some.”
“Why didn’t you give them to police then?”
“I was afraid he would know I had them.”
“And now?”
Erin looked at my cast.
“Now I’m tired of being afraid.”
Rebecca picked up the drive but didn’t insert it anywhere.
“We’ll give this directly to investigators.”
Erin nodded.
“There’s a folder named B.”
“B?”
“Barron.”
I stared at her.
“What’s in it?”
“I never opened most of it.”
“Why?”
“Because the one document I did open scared me enough.”
“What was it?”
Erin looked toward the door.
“A power of attorney.”
“That’s not unusual.”
“It was signed by Barron.”
“Still not unusual.”
“He hadn’t signed it.”
My skin went cold.
“How do you know?”
“Because the file contained two versions.”
One signed.
One unsigned.
“And?”
Erin swallowed.
“The signed one had a note attached.”
“What note?”
She remembered the words perfectly.
Once Dad’s medication is adjusted, we can finish the rest.
I thought about Celina’s stew.
Barron’s medical condition.
His increasing weakness over the last year.
The pills lined up beside his breakfast plate.
And suddenly the argument that had broken my leg looked completely different.
May you like
Maybe I had never been attacked because the stew was too salty.
Maybe I had been attacked because I had started paying attention to what they were feeding Barron.
