I stared at her. “Wait a second… what safe code did you see entered in that footage?”
Her mouth opened, then closed. “What?”
“Tell me the code,” I repeated slowly.
Her eyes flashed. “Why are you interrogating me?”
Suddenly I remembered something. Marisa had joked once about how “old-school” I was for having a personal safe. And she’d insisted we install a security camera “for safety” because my neighborhood was “quiet, but you never know.”
Suddenly I remembered something.
I pulled out my phone and opened the camera app — the one Marisa had set up. I scrolled through the archived footage. And there it was.
A few minutes before the hooded figure entered my bedroom, the camera caught Marisa in the hallway… holding Avery’s gray hoodie.
Everything inside me just froze as I played the next clip.
Everything inside me just froze as I played the next clip.
Marisa was entering my room, opening my dresser, and crouching at the safe. And then, she was holding something up to the camera with a small, triumphant smile.
Money.
I turned the phone toward her. “Explain this.”
Marisa’s face drained of color, then hardened like a concrete setting.
She was holding something up to the camera
with a small, triumphant smile.
“You don’t understand,” she snapped. “I was trying to save you.”
“By framing my daughter? By stealing from me? Are you insane?”
“She’s NOT your daughter,” Marisa hissed.
And there it was. The real truth she’d been holding back.
“She’s not your blood,” Marisa continued, stepping closer. “You’ve poured your entire life into her. The money, the house, the college fund. For what? So she can leave at 18 and forget you exist?”
And there it was.
The real truth she’d been holding back.
Everything inside me went very still and very quiet.
“Get out,” I said.
Marisa laughed. “You’re choosing her over me. Again.”
“Get out now.”
She took one step back, then reached into her purse. I thought she was going for her keys.
Instead, she pulled out my ring box. The one I’d hidden in my nightstand.
Everything inside me went very still and very quiet.
Her smile returned, smug and cruel. “I knew it. I knew you were going to propose.”
“Fine,” she added. “Keep your charity case. But I’m not leaving empty-handed.”
She turned toward the door like she owned the place. I followed her, grabbed the ring box from her hand, and opened the front door so hard it slammed against the wall.
Marisa paused on the porch and looked back. “You know what? Don’t come crying to me when she breaks your heart.”
Then she left. My hands were still shaking when I locked the door.
“Keep your charity case.
But I’m not leaving empty-handed.”
I turned around, and Avery was standing at the bottom of the stairs, her face pale. She’d heard everything.
“Dad,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to…”
“I know, sweetheart,” I said, crossing the room in two strides. “I know you didn’t do anything.”
