Chapter 14 - The Old Phone Went Back Into the Drawer
My son was born eleven weeks after the attack.
Benjamin.
Healthy.
Loud.
Completely uninterested in the legal collapse surrounding his arrival.
Rebecca visited the hospital carrying the old phone in an evidence bag after the necessary copies had been preserved and the device was eventually released.
“You want it?”
I stared at the cracked screen.
“No.”
Then changed my mind.
“Yes.”
Months later, I put it back into the same kitchen drawer.
Not because I expected another attack.
Grant no longer lived there.
Brooke had no access.
The locks were changed.
The security system belonged to me.
I kept the phone because, for a while, I needed proof that the beginning existed.
Grant’s whole plan depended on starting the story in the middle.
Sarah angry.
Sarah violent.
Sarah unstable.
Sarah withholding money.
The phone restored what came before.
The lies.
The preparation.
The weapon.
The smile.
Then one morning Lucy found it.
“Why is this old phone here?”
I took it from her.
May you like
“Because Mommy forgot to throw it away.”
That was finally becoming true.
