CHAPTER 13: Vivienne Without Diamonds

Vivienne removed her necklace before the formal interview.
Perhaps she thought humility had a wardrobe. Perhaps diamonds looked too much like teeth under fluorescent lights. Either way, without them she seemed smaller, not innocent, merely less expensive.
She insisted Maren had slipped. She insisted she had reached to help. She insisted Leo was confused from fear, cold, and attachment to his mother.
Then the investigator played eleven seconds of audio from the bracelet.
Give him to me.
Sign tonight.
The sharp breath when fingers left metal.
The child screaming Mommy before the water took the rest.
Vivienne closed her mouth.
In the hallway, Maren stood with Nora and did not ask to watch. She did not need Vivienne’s collapse to heal what had happened. Revenge was too small a word for a child shivering in a blanket.
What she wanted was custody, safety, and every door between Leo and the people who had called him an asset.
A detective came out with the recorder sealed in a plastic evidence bag.
“Mrs. Cross,” he said to Maren, “we need a full statement when you’re ready.”
Maren looked down at her son.
“I’m ready for the parts he doesn’t have to hear.”