Chapter 5 - The Girl Who Left
Nora lived three states away and worked nights at a hospital.
"Mom pulled Emily's hair tonight," I said.
Nora didn't gasp. She didn't sound surprised. "Is Emily safe?"
"She's upstairs. She's going to stay with a friend."
"Good."
"Nora, Mom says you stole her bracelet."
A bitter laugh came through the phone. "I know what she says. I found that bracelet six months later in her jewelry box. Dad saw it, too."
I thought of seventeen-year-old Nora standing in our driveway with a trash bag of clothes while Mom shouted from the porch. I'd been eight, holding a stuffed dog, certain my sister had done something terrible.
"Why didn't Dad tell anyone?"
"You might want to ask him that about a lot of things."
Nora told me the fight hadn't started with jewelry. She had come home early and found Mom slapping Dad in the laundry room. When Nora stepped between them, Mom struck her across the mouth. Nora said she would tell a teacher. The next morning, the bracelet vanished.
"She told everybody I was unstable," Nora said. "She made me the problem before I could tell anyone what I'd seen."
"Dad let her do that?"
"He cried while I packed. Then he asked me not to make things worse."
My stomach tightened. I'd said some version of that to Emily for years.
"I'm sorry I believed her," I said.
"You were a kid then. What scares me is you kept believing her when you became a grown man."
The words landed without mercy because they were true.
Nora asked me to take Emily to urgent care, save every message, and write down what happened while it was fresh. She offered to speak to Emily if Emily wanted, but she didn't make the offer sound like an obligation.
"Why did Mom call you tonight?" I asked.
"She wanted me to tell you Emily was making it up. Same old routine." Nora paused. "But there's something different this time."
"What?"
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"She's not just angry. She's scared Dad might finally talk. And she said she still has a key to your house."
I stared toward our front door. I'd locked it, but suddenly that didn't seem like much.
