“Across town. It is small.”
“Small is not the same as unsafe.”
Her mouth curved faintly.
“No.”
She handed me a key.
“What is this?”
“The guesthouse. I will be gone by tonight. I wanted you to have it back.”
I closed my fingers around the key.
“You can keep it until you move your things.”
“I do not want anything that came from him.”
“Then keep the key until you are ready to leave. That is different.”
She looked toward the courthouse steps.
“I used to think being good meant enduring everything quietly.”
“What do you think now?”
“That being good sometimes means making the truth impossible to ignore.”
I touched her shoulder.
She stiffened first, then let herself lean into the contact for one brief second.
“Be careful,” I said.
“I will.”
She walked away carrying one suitcase.
The house changed after that.
Not quickly.
At first, every knock made me tense. I checked the locks twice before bed. I woke from dreams with my hand pressed against my cheek.
The camera remained above the bookshelf until the investigator released the footage. Then Arthur had it removed.
The pale square it left on the wall bothered me for weeks.
I began seeing a counselor named Dr. Patel. She did not tell me I should forgive Daniel. She asked what I wanted to feel when I woke up.
“I want to stop measuring every room by its exits,” I said.
She nodded.
“Then we start there.”
I started walking again.
