Chapter 6: Before Eight O'Clock
I showed Grant the text at seven the next morning.
He read it twice.
His face didn't change.
He forwarded it to his attorney without a word, then set the phone face-down on the breakfast table.
Lily was eating toast across from him, her feet not quite reaching the floor.
She had slept through the night.
She was wearing her blue pajamas with the small white stars, and she had her stuffed rabbit — a battered gray thing named Clover — tucked under her left arm.
She looked, in that moment, like any ordinary seven-year-old having breakfast.
Except for the small gauze patch Dr.
Harmon had placed over the burn on her scalp.
Grant watched her eat.
He was still in the clothes from last night, jacket gone, top button open.
He hadn't slept.
"Lily-bug," he said.
"I need to ask you something.
You can answer any way you want — nod, shake your head, point.
Okay?"
Lily looked at him and waited.
"Did Renata ever hurt you before last night?"
A pause.
Then Lily nodded.
Once.
Clearly.
Grant's jaw tightened.
"More than once?"
Another nod.
He reached across the table and covered her small hand with his.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I'm so sorry I didn't know."
Lily looked at him for a long moment.
Then she picked up her toast and took a bite.
It wasn't forgiveness exactly — she was seven, and forgiveness is a complicated thing — but it wasn't rejection either.
She was still sitting at his table.
She was still there.
---
Daniel Marsh, Grant's attorney, arrived at seven forty-five.
He was a lean, precise man with a briefcase that he set on the kitchen table and opened with two sharp clicks.
He laid out three documents in a row.
"The security footage has been authenticated and timestamped," he said.
"Dr.
Harmon's report is filed.
Emma's written statement is in my hands." He looked at me.
"This is thorough work.
The detail about the kitchen incident two months ago is particularly useful — it establishes a pattern."
"What does Renata's side have?" Grant asked.
"An @ssault complaint that she filed at eleven-fifteen last night.
Her attorney will argue that Emma acted aggressively, that Lily's gesture was coached, and that the burn was accidental." Daniel paused.
"They'll also argue that the security footage shows only a hallway incident — not the bathroom — and that what happened in the bathroom is Emma's word against Renata's."
"The burn on Lily's scalp," I said.
"Dr.
Harmon documented it."
"Renata's attorney will say Lily pulled away suddenly and the iron caught her.
Accidents happen during styling." He looked at Grant.
"They're going to fight this."
"Let them," Grant said.
Daniel nodded.
"I've also contacted the family advocate — Dr.
Reyes.
She'll conduct an independent assessment of Lily this week.
Her findings carry significant weight in family court." He paused.
"Grant, I have to be direct.
Renata's attorney will likely argue that removing her from the home is destabilizing for Lily — that Lily is already traumatized and that disruption makes it worse.
They'll use Lily's silence as evidence of fragility."
"Lily's silence," Grant said, "is evidence of what was done to her."
"I agree.
But we need Dr.
Reyes's assessment to make that argument formally." Daniel closed his briefcase.
"In the meantime, I've sent a formal notice to Renata's attorney.
She is not to contact Emma again.
The nine o'clock deadline is void.
Any further communication goes through me."
He looked at his watch.
"It's seven fifty-eight.
I'd like to be in position before their deadline passes."
Grant stood.
He looked at me.
"You'll be all right here with Lily?"
"Yes."
He nodded.
He looked at Lily one more time — still eating her toast, Clover tucked under her arm — and then he and Daniel walked out.
The kitchen was quiet.
Outside the window, the Hudson was silver and flat in the morning light.
Lily set down her toast and looked at me.
Then, very carefully, she picked up her rabbit and held it out toward me.
I took Clover gently.
Looked at the worn gray fur, the one remaining button eye.
"Thank you," I said.
Lily nodded, as if that settled something.
She took Clover back, tucked him under her arm again, and finished her toast.
---
At nine-seventeen, Grant's phone rang.
He was in his office by then.
I heard his voice through the closed door — short, measured sentences, no rise in tone.
At nine forty-one, he came back to the kitchen doorway.
"Renata's attorney has requested a meeting," he said.
"In person.
This afternoon."
"What does that mean?"
"It means," he said, "that the footage is stronger than she expected."
But there was something in his face that wasn't relief.
Something careful and held back.
"What else?" I asked.
He looked at Lily, then back at me.
"Renata is claiming that Lily's mother's accident wasn't an accident."
The room went very still.
May you like
"She says she has evidence," Grant said.
"And she's willing to share it — in exchange for a full withdrawal of all claims against her."
