Chapter 5 - THE PEOPLE I THOUGHT HAD STOPPED CALLING
Erica answered on the first ring.
Then cried.
“Shelby?”
I almost hung up because guilt hit before relief.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For disappearing.”
“You didn't.”
“What?”
“I kept texting.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Shelby, I texted you for two years.”
I sat down.
Erica still had screenshots.
Her messages.
Delivered.
Then eventually blocked.
My replies appeared increasingly hostile.
STOP CONTACTING ME.
TRENT WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU.
YOU LOVE DRAMA.
I had not sent them.
One came while I was in labor with Ruthie.
Another while I was hospitalized after an appendectomy.
Trent had access to my phone both times.
Then my old coworker Nicole produced similar messages.
My college friend Marissa too.
Different wording.
Same purpose.
Leave us alone.
Respect my marriage.
Stop trying to interfere.
Trent had not merely criticized my friends until I withdrew.
Sometimes he had spoken as me.
That widened the digital investigation.
Password resets routed through an email account Trent controlled.
Recovery numbers.
Shared cloud access.
Archived messages.
Contact blocks.
The isolation had infrastructure.
I felt humiliated.
“I should’ve known.”
Dana answered:
“You were living inside the system. The person building it knew where the switches were.”
That helped more than reassurance.
Then Erica said something else.
“Your dad kept asking about you.”
I went still.
“Gary?”
“Yes.”
“He was drinking.”
“Years ago.”
“He’s been sober.”
“How long?”
“Eight years, I think.”
I stared at the shelter wall.
Trent told me Gary relapsed six years earlier.
Erica said the opposite.
“Did Dad ever contact me?”
“All the time.”
I remembered two voicemails.
Slurred.
Angry.
At least I thought so.
Trent played them for me.
Gary saying:
You need to call me.
I can’t keep doing this.
I had interpreted them through the story I was given.
Danger.
Relapse.
Manipulation.
Now I wondered whether the voice had simply been emotional.
I did not call Gary.
Not yet.
Fear is stubborn even after evidence changes.
Instead, I asked Alicia to check.
She did.
No recent alcohol-related arrests.
Steady employment.
Same apartment for five years.
Then something unexpected.
Gary had filed two police information reports.
Not against me.
About Trent.
One four years earlier.
One two years later.
Both documenting concern that Trent was preventing contact with his daughter and grandchildren.
No criminal action resulted.
Adults can choose not to speak to parents.
Gary had no automatic right to me.
May you like
But the reports existed.
Trent had never told me.
