Chapter 6 - THE RELATIVES WHO SAW NOTHING
The party witnesses split into three groups.
People who saw the slap.
People who saw only Mia crying afterward.
People who suddenly remembered they had been looking somewhere else.
Hannah found the third group fascinating.
Not because she needed all of them.
The video existed.
Because several had laughed with Walter ten minutes before he hit Mia.
Admitting what happened required admitting they had then stood still.
One uncle said:
“I thought Walter was swatting her hand.”
The video showed cheek.
An aunt said:
“It happened so fast.”
True.
A cousin said:
“I didn't want to make it worse.”
Also possibly true.
Hannah understood that one too well.
Then Richard called her attorney and asked for permission to speak directly.
Hannah agreed.
Phone only.
“Your mother filed a report.”
Hannah sat in her kitchen.
“For the kick.”
“Yes.”
“She should.”
Richard went quiet.
“You mean that?”
“I kicked her.”
“You were protecting Mia.”
“Not when I kicked Mom.”
That distinction made him uncomfortable.
Good.
Richard continued.
“She has bruising. Nothing broken.”
“I’m glad.”
“She wants you to apologize.”
“I will.”
Richard seemed surprised.
“But not in exchange for anything.”
There.
“Anything?”
“Walter's apology. Her report. Family access. Nothing.”
Richard sighed.
“You're turning this into a legal war.”
“No.”
Hannah looked toward Mia asleep on the couch.
“I called the police after someone hit my child.”
“Walter isn't going to hurt her again.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I told him—”
Hannah laughed.
Richard stopped.
She asked:
“Did you tell him that after Caleb?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He never hit Caleb again.”
“As far as you know.”
“Yes.”
Hannah waited.
Then:
“Did you know he hit Caleb first?”
Richard did not answer.
That was the first real answer.
Hannah sat up.
“Dad.”
“I knew there were competing accounts.”
“Caroline saw it.”
“She was uncertain.”
“She was seventeen.”
“So was I supposed to treat her memory as definitive?”
“No.”
Hannah's voice hardened.
“You were supposed to treat it as evidence.”
Richard took that.
Then:
“Caleb was getting worse.”
There it was.
The argument beneath every other argument.
Caleb had been missing school.
Using drugs.
Stealing a car.
Punching walls.
Frightening Evelyn.
He once told Richard:
“I hope this house burns while you're all in it.”
Caleb later claimed he meant the house symbolically.
Nobody found that funny at the time.
Richard said:
“Your brother needed intervention.”
“Maybe.”
“Hannah.”
“I said maybe.”
She was not cleaning Caleb up.
“But did needing help make Walter innocent?”
Richard said nothing.
Then Hannah asked:
“Why did Mom say I fell down the basement stairs when I was seventeen?”
The line went quiet.
Completely.
“Hannah.”
Her skin prickled.
She had not planned to ask.
The memory simply surfaced.
Senior year.
A family argument.
A bruise behind her ear.
Three stitches near her hairline.
Everyone said she slipped while carrying laundry.
Hannah had always remembered the fall.
Not what happened immediately before.
“Dad?”
“That has nothing to do with Mia.”
Same sentence.
Again.
Hannah whispered:
“Apparently that's what this family says right before something matters.”
Richard ended the call.
Not angrily.
May you like
Abruptly.
That frightened her more.
