Chapter 7 - Grant Said He Was Trying To Stop Her
The recording did not show the garage.
That mattered.
Sloane could still be lying.
Grant could still be lying.
Both could be lying differently.
The police did not arrest Grant immediately for the larger theory Rachel wanted to build.
He had been removed from the house under temporary conditions.
He had lawyers.
He had explanations.
And he had one argument he kept repeating:
I knew Sloane was angry. I tried to calm her down.
Then investigators listened to more of the old phone.
Not just the minutes Rachel and I remembered.
Twenty-nine minutes.
The phone had caught conversations before Sloane arrived because I had activated it while Grant was upstairs.
Caroline called me.
“They want you to identify voices.”
“Grant.”
“And?”
“I don't know.”
“They'll do it formally. Don't listen with me.”
Again.
Everybody making sure my anger didn't become evidence.
The next afternoon, police interviewed me with counsel present.
They played one section.
Grant's voice:
“If she touches you first, this gets easier.”
I felt my hands go cold.
Another voice came faintly through the speaker.
Sloane.
“What if she doesn't?”
Grant answered:
“She will.”
The detective stopped playback.
I stared at the table.
“Play it.”
“We will.”
“Please.”
He continued.
Sloane said:
“You said she throws things.”
Grant:
“She does when she thinks she's losing control.”
My broken phone.
He had turned one of my worst moments into a forecast.
Then Sloane:
“And the kids?”
Grant:
“They need to see it.”
I closed my eyes.
The detective paused again.
“Mrs. Mason?”
“I’m okay.”
I wasn't.
But I wanted to hear the rest.
The recording resumed.
Sloane said something about leaving.
Grant responded:
“You came this far.”
Then footsteps.
My footsteps upstairs.
Grant lowered his voice.
“Wait until they're down here.”
The detective stopped.
That was enough.
Not legally enough for every conclusion.
Emotionally, more than enough.
I asked:
“Does the recording say he told her to hit me?”
The detective looked at Caroline before answering.
“No direct statement like that in the portion we've reviewed.”
Important.
Grant had apparently planned a confrontation.
He had expected me to react.
He wanted the children present.
But whether he expected Sloane to swing the ladle remained another question.
I almost hated that uncertainty.
Caroline didn't.
“Don't fill gaps because you hate him.”
“I don't need help hating him.”
“I know.”
On the way out, Rachel waited in the lobby.
I told her the line.
If she touches you first, this gets easier.
Rachel's face changed.
“Custody.”
“Probably.”
“Or the house.”
“Maybe.”
She started walking.
I didn't.
“What?”
I looked at her.
“He didn't say ‘I get the kids.’”
“No.”
“He said ‘this gets easier.’”
Rachel frowned.
“For what else?”
That was the right question.
Grant had already packed the children.
He had the passports.
He had court papers.
But he also had a suitcase of his own.
And his mistress believed he wanted to build a life with her.
Yet he was already blaming Sloane.
He had created a confrontation where every outcome gave him somebody else to blame.
For the first time I wondered whether the goal wasn't Sloane.
May you like
Or even custody.
Maybe Grant's real obsession was never having to be the person who openly chose to end our family.
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