Chapter 4
I stopped calling for them. Instead, I shouted toward the house next door. “Jonas!”
At first, nothing happened. Then a porch light switched on across the yard. My neighbor appeared beneath a large black umbrella. He was halfway down his steps when he saw me. He dropped the umbrella and ran. “What happened?” “I fell.”
He knelt beside my ankle and immediately looked toward my living-room window. “Have they called anyone?” “No.” Jonas stared through the glass at the three people inside. He had helped me repair the backyard fence the previous spring. He knew exactly who lived in the house and who paid for it. His jaw tightened. He picked up my phone from the grass and called 911.
Only after the dispatcher answered did Brenna open the door again. She looked irritated. “What do you want now?” The question hurt worse than my ankle. Jonas slowly lifted his head. “Your brother is lying in the rain with what looks like a broken leg.” Brenna crossed her arms. “Stay out of this. You don’t understand how things work in this family.” Jonas glanced at the broken grocery bags. “I understand that he brought home your food and you left him outside beside it.”
Colter appeared behind her. He wore clean socks and held the remote control. “Let’s not make this dramatic,” he said. “The ambulance is coming.” “It’s coming because Jonas called,” I said.
Maddox stood in the hallway behind them. He looked uncomfortable, but not enough to step forward. “Can I go upstairs?” he asked. Upstairs. To the room I paid for. In the house I owned. Brenna turned to him. “Go ahead, honey.” “No,” I said. My voice was quiet, but everyone heard it. “Stay here.”
Brenna’s head snapped toward me. “Don’t talk to my son like that.” “He needs to see what you’re teaching him.” “What is that supposed to mean?” “That when someone is lying on the ground, you check whether helping them will inconvenience you before you decide if they matter.”
Colter rolled his eyes. “You’re in pain. You’re saying things you don’t mean.”
Jonas slipped a folded towel beneath my ankle. My shoe had already begun tightening around the swelling. “Do you have scissors?” he asked. No one answered. Jonas stood, walked into my kitchen, opened my drawers, and returned with the kitchen shears. Brenna watched him cut my shoelaces. When he tried to remove the shoe, the pain tore a scream from my throat. My sister winced. “For God’s sake, Emmett.”
That was the moment it ended. Not when they ignored my first shout. Not when she called me demanding. Not even when the door locked. It ended when my pain embarrassed her.
I looked at my sister, her husband, and their son standing dry beneath my roof. “You have five minutes,” I said. Colter frowned. “Five minutes for what?” “To understand that this house is no longer a shelter for people who watched its owner lie outside in the rain.” Brenna gave a nervous laugh. “You’re throwing us out because we didn’t carry you inside like a king?” “No.”
I opened the Notes app on my phone. My fingers shook, but I found the list. “Eight months of rent: zero. Eight months of electricity, water, internet, groceries, insurance payments, repairs, and things you used without asking: more than six thousand seven hundred dollars.” Brenna’s face changed. “You were keeping score?” “Yes.” “That is disgusting.” “No. Disgusting is eating the food I bought while I begged outside your window for help.”
Colter stepped closer. “This is our home too.” The pain in my ankle pulsed with my heartbeat. I looked directly at him. “This is my house with your boxes inside it. Those are not the same thing.”
May you like
The ambulance arrived twenty minutes later. Two paramedics lifted me onto a gurney. One of them asked who would accompany me to the hospital. Brenna looked at Colter. Colter scratched the side of his face. “I should stay with Maddox.” Maddox was fifteen. Jonas picked up my wallet and keys. “I’m coming.”
As the paramedics rolled me toward the ambulance, I called a number I had not used in almost a year. A woman answered on the third ring. “Camille Vance.” “It’s Emmett.” Her voice changed immediately. “What happened?” “I need you at my house tomorrow morning.” “Are you safe?” “I’m going to the hospital. Jonas is with me.” “What do you need me to do?” I watched my sister standing in my doorway, dry beneath the porch light she had finally turned on. “Bring the black file.”
