Chapter 11: The Rabbit in the Bag
Ryan didn’t reach for the paper.
He sat with one hand flat on the table, watching me as if the threat had been something I’d made him say. Then he slid the unsigned statement toward himself.
Mara was already beside us.
“Time to go,” she said.
Ryan’s gaze flicked to her, then back to me. “You’re letting other people make decisions for you now?”
“No,” I said. “I’m making one.”
I stood and lifted Lily’s carrier. Her stuffed rabbit lay against her chest, its worn ear caught beneath her little fist.
Ryan’s expression softened when he looked at her. It was a familiar expression. Once, it would have made me want to believe that underneath all the hurt, we could still find our way back to each other.
Now I noticed how carefully he’d chosen the moment.
At his feet sat the canvas bag he’d brought into the café. He nudged it toward me with his shoe.
“I brought some things for Lily,” he said. “Her blanket. A few clothes. The rabbit, if you’ve misplaced it.”
I looked at the rabbit in Lily’s arms.
“You didn’t need to bring anything.”
“She should have her things.”
The words sounded generous. The timing didn’t.
He had just threatened to ruin me, then offered something that belonged to our daughter as if tenderness could erase the threat. I didn’t take the bag.
Mara did.
“We’ll go through it later,” she said.
For a second, Ryan looked almost wounded. Then the expression disappeared.
“Do what you want, Emily.”
“I am.”
We left without giving him the satisfaction of another answer.
The short-term apartment Mara had arranged was quiet when we got back. I locked the door behind us and leaned against it, listening to the hall until I heard nothing but the elevator moving somewhere below.
Lily started crying before I’d even gotten her coat off.
She was tired, hungry, and past the point where a soft voice could fix everything. I tried a bottle. She turned her face away. I rocked her while Mara checked the window blinds, then lowered her onto the play mat.
The rabbit wasn’t in her hands.
I looked toward the canvas bag. Mara had set it beside the small sofa, unopened.
“Where’s her rabbit?”
“Didn’t you have it at the café?”
“I did.”
I searched the stroller, the diaper bag, the folds of Lily’s blanket. Her crying sharpened into hiccups. I turned back to the canvas bag and opened it.
A little pile of clothes sat on top. Beneath them were spare blankets, folded with the same care Ryan used when he wanted things to look finished. The rabbit was tucked underneath.
I pulled it free. Its ear was bent more sharply than before.
Lily quieted the instant I put it in her arms.
She pressed her face into the worn fabric. Her fingers found the frayed seam she always worried at when she was tired.
I watched her settle, and the sweetness of the moment curdled in my chest.
Ryan had remembered exactly what comforted her. He had also chosen to place it beneath the blankets and push it toward me after threatening to make me look unfit. A little kindness offered where I couldn’t refuse it—not without making myself feel cruel.
Mara watched me close the bag.
“He knows which things still work on you,” she said.
I stroked Lily’s hair. “He knows which things I can’t leave behind.”
My phone rang.
Paige’s name appeared on the screen.
Mara’s face tightened. “You don’t have to answer.”
I looked at the rabbit tucked under Lily’s chin. The call could be another request for trust she hadn’t earned. It could also be the first chance to hear something useful.
I answered on speaker.
“Emily?”
Paige’s voice sounded thin, as if she’d been crying or trying very hard not to.
“I’m here.”
“Ryan’s telling people I took the money.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What people?”
“His attorney. Someone at the bank, I think. I don’t know who else yet.” She drew a shaky breath. “He says I was the one with access to the tablet and that I made the transfers.”
Mara sat down beside me, close enough to hear.
“Did you make them?”
“No.” The answer came quickly. Then Paige hesitated. “I didn’t move the money. But I did send him that picture of you and Lily. I knew he wanted to know where you were going. I knew he was asking me questions about you, and I helped him.”
Her shame didn’t undo what she’d done. But she didn’t try to pretend it hadn’t happened.
“Why are you calling now?” I asked.
“Because he said if I didn’t help him fix this, he’d make sure every bit of it landed on me. He’s already telling people I stole from you. I think he’s going to say I planned the whole thing.”
The room felt smaller around us.
“What do you have?”
“Account records. Screenshots. Messages from Ryan. More than the ones I sent before.”
“Have you sent them to anyone?”
“No.”
“Have you changed or deleted anything?”
“No. I swear.”
The promise landed carefully between us. I couldn’t take it on faith, and she didn’t ask me to.
“I can send everything,” Paige said. “The complete records. The messages about the transfers and the airport. I can show you what he told me to say.”
“Send the copies first.”
“I will.”
“Then Mara and I can meet you. Somewhere public. Mara stays with me.”
“I understand.”
“And Paige? You don’t get to leave out the part where you sent him my location.”
“I won’t.”
It wasn’t forgiveness. It wasn’t even trust. It was a narrow opening, with my conditions on both sides.
I ended the call and glanced at Mara.
“You believe her?” she asked.
“I believe Ryan gave her a reason to be scared.” I looked down at Lily, finally quiet against the rabbit. “That doesn’t make what she did okay.”
May you like
My phone buzzed again. A message from Paige appeared.
He says he’s going to blame me for everything. He wants me to help him silence you first.
