Chapter 10 - AVA WITHOUT A PHONE
Ava came back to the mansion six months later.
No makeup.
Jeans.
No phone visible.
That last part was probably deliberate.
I opened the door but didn’t hug her.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Awkward.
Good.
Some relationships should feel awkward after years of artificial ease.
She sat in the foyer where she once filmed me.
For a while neither of us spoke.
Then Ava looked at the black marble desk.
“I deleted a lot of videos over the years.”
I waited.
“Things Dad said.”
“Why?”
“I thought I was protecting the family.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
She picked at the seam of her jeans.
“I think I liked being the one holding the camera because nobody could embarrass me first.”
That was more insight than I expected.
She continued.
“Mom told me the inheritance fight was because Margaret hated us.”
“Did you believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Do you now?”
“No.”
Ava’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know about the money.”
“I believe you.”
She looked surprised.
“I knew Dad could be awful. I knew Mom helped him pressure people. I just… I thought you were acting superior because Grandma chose you.”
“I probably did sometimes.”
She laughed weakly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not making me the dumb innocent sister in your version either.”
Fair.
She had been cruel.
Filming me while I was injured was cruel.
Cinderella was cruel.
Repeatedly treating my pain as entertainment did not become harmless because she didn’t know about fraud.
So I told her that.
“You hurt me.”
Ava nodded.
“I know.”
“You don’t get to explain that away with Dad.”
“I know.”
Better answer.
Then she reached into her bag.
Old phone.
Cracked screen.
“I found backups.”
My pulse changed.
“Of what?”
“Family videos.”
Some useless.
Some ugly.
One devastating.
A recording from eight months before Margaret died.
Ava had filmed herself dancing through the library as a joke.
In the background, out of focus but audible, Richard and Celeste were arguing.
Richard:
“She won’t remember which packet she signed.”
Celeste:
“She remembers more than you think.”
Richard:
“Then keep her calm.”
Celeste:
“You’re asking too much.”
Richard:
“I’m protecting everything she built.”
The recording ended with Ava laughing at herself and leaving the room.
She had never noticed the conversation.
The forensic examiner did.
That clip became one of the most important pieces of evidence against my father’s claim that Margaret fully understood every transaction.
Ava stared at me after handing over the copy.
“I spent my whole life filming the wrong thing.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
She looked confused.
May you like
“You just didn’t know what the frame actually contained.”
Maybe that was true of all of us.
