Chapter 2: What the Recording Knew
Tabitha didn't answer.
She straightened her back and looked at me like I was the one who'd done something wrong.
"You hjt me.
In front of your own daughter.
What kind of father does that?"
"The kind who just watched you hold a sick child's inhaler in the air."
My father stepped forward then.
Not to stop Tabitha.
To stand beside her.
"You're overreacting," Orson said.
"Juniper was fine."
"She was gasping, Dad."
He waved his hand.
"Children dramatize."
I couldn't speak for a moment.
Juniper was still pressed against my side, her small fingers twisted into my shirt.
Then Willa spoke again, quietly.
"There's more on the recording."
Tabitha's eyes moved to Willa fast.
Too fast.
"That's private.
You had no right—"
"I was protecting Juniper.
Someone had to."
I took the phone from Willa and pressed play again.
The timestamp showed forty minutes before I arrived.
Orson's voice came through the speaker clearly.
"If she has an episode bad enough, he'll have to move back.
He won't leave her here alone."
I looked at my father.
He didn't deny it.
He just looked at the floor.
Then my phone rang.
It was my ex-wife.
May you like
Juniper's mother.
And she never called unless something was already very wrong.
