Chapter 25 - BRIelle AND EUDORA TELL DIFFERENT TRUTHS
Brielle testified first.
She cried before the difficult questions began.
Not strategy necessarily.
Pain.
She described her pregnancy loss.
Surgery.
Divorce.
Watching friends become mothers.
Then June.
“I loved her before she was born.”
No crime.
“When did you begin thinking of yourself as more than an aunt?”
Brielle stared at the table.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you write ‘I don’t want a role. I want her’?”
“Yes.”
“What did you mean?”
“That I wanted to matter.”
“Why say the baby belonged to you?”
“I was angry.”
“At Tessa?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she kept taking June away from me.”
The prosecutor paused.
“Taking her own daughter away from you?”
Brielle closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
There.
Entitlement in one sentence.
Then the fire.
“Did you know Eudora would release June?”
“No.”
“Did you see her moving toward the fire pit?”
“Yes.”
“Why keep blocking Tessa?”
“I thought Mom was trying to scare her.”
“Using the infant?”
“Yes.”
“Did you think that was acceptable?”
“No.”
“Then why block?”
Brielle’s voice broke.
“Because I wanted Tessa to stop winning.”
Silence.
Ugly.
Honest.
Then Eudora.
She wore a plain dark suit.
No pearls.
She admitted the bucket.
Why?
“To humiliate Tessa.”
No euphemism.
Why?
“She accused us of stealing.”
Then:
“Were you trying to establish a caregiving arrangement?”
“Yes.”
“Against Tessa’s wishes?”
“I thought she would eventually see the benefit.”
“Was that her decision?”
“Yes.”
“Did you behave like it?”
“No.”
Then June.
“Why take her?”
“To end the argument.”
“Why approach the fire?”
Eudora said:
“To frighten Tessa.”
There.
“Why?”
“So she would stop treating us as enemies.”
The prosecutor stared.
“You tried to make her stop viewing you as a threat by holding her newborn over fire?”
Eudora looked down.
“Yes.”
“Did you release June?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I knew Alphonse was coming.”
“Did he agree to catch her?”
“No.”
“Did you warn him?”
“No.”
“Were you certain he would reach her?”
“I believed it.”
“Is belief the same as certainty?”
“No.”
Then:
“What if he slipped?”
Eudora cried.
“I didn’t think.”
That was the most believable sentence she gave.
Not because nothing led to the act.
Because she had spent months thinking obsessively about everything except the baby as a person.
First heir.
Family future.
Routine.
Marlow home.
Brielle’s loss.
Tessa’s supposed instability.
By the time she reached the fire pit, June had become an object inside Eudora’s argument.
The prosecutor asked one final question.
“Who did June belong to?”
Eudora looked at Tessa.
Then Daniel.
“No one.”
Correct.
May you like
Late.
But correct.
