When the doorbell rang, I didn’t waste time. This showdown had been coming for hours. Time to deal with it.
Chapter Sixty-One
Hanna
Stella burst inside before I could welcome her. Wild energy pulsed around her as she stormed into the entry and stopped. The ruffled clothes and mussed hair suggested she’d been dealing with the Isabel issue all day.
I felt sick for Stella. Caretaking someone like Isabel amounted to a full-time job.
“How could you?” Stella’s accusatory tone whipped out like a vicious slap. The flush on her cheeks and fighting stance didn’t bode well.
She was making it tough to feel for her, but I tried. “I can explain.”
“That you set up my mother? That you colluded with Aubrey to destroy what was left of the Tanner family?” Stella dropped her bag to the floor. It was as if she’d used up all her energy to sustain her rage and didn’t have anything left.
“Actually, you’re not all that’s left of the Tanner family.” Small point but she needed to accept it.
Her mouth flattened and a strange darkness moved into her eyes. “Is that what this is about, Hanna? You’re trying to protect your precious money haul?”
Admittedly, this conversation wasn’t going great. “Maybe you could calm down a smidge.”
“Fuck you, Hanna.”
Stella was not ready to be placated. Got it.
“I’m the one who named Isabel, not Mom.” Jeremy spoke from the doorway. He leaned against the frame, sliding a bit as she stood there. “The more time passes, the more I remember.”
“No.” I rushed over to him. Tried to use my smaller body to shore up his. This was not his fight. “You need to be resting. I can handle this.”
“You’re saying my mother attacked you?” Stella sounded more stunned than pissed.
I appreciated the change and tried to pivot. “Why don’t we—”
Jeremy had other ideas. “No. Not me. She didn’t come near me.”
“Then why did you frame her?”
I wanted to stop this runaway train, but Stella and Jeremy weren’t backing down. The standoff promised Stella would get the answers she needed to hear but dreaded to her core.
“She was there. I went for a drive to clear my head after the... argument with Mom. When I came back to the café your mom was there. I could see her from the café’s dining room. There’s an opening into the kitchen.” Jeremy waited until I nodded before continuing. “Your mom walked around really agitated. At first I thought she was talking to someone, but now I’m guessing she was talking to herself while standing over Daniela.”
That sounded on brand for Isabel. She radiated a sort of frenetic energy.
The rest of the tension left Stella’s body. She stood in the center of the entryway, looking lost. Defeated by an ineffective defense of a woman who never once bothered to stand up for anyone but herself. “That doesn’t mean she’s the one who attacked Daniela.”
“I can see...” Jeremy’s voice went in and out. He seemed to be searching for memories through a muddled darkness. “Your mom wasn’t helping Daniela or calling the police.”
“What was she doing?” I had to ask. I’d wanted to ask for hours. When Jeremy talked with the police about what he’d seen and heard, about the fire and the attack, he did so outside of my presence. He was an adult but I had to fight the urge to break down the door to get to him.
Jeremy winced. “She was holding a gas can and then... Wait... I remember...”
“I can’t—” Stella started to fall. Her body collapsed into a boneless heap.
“Shit.” I caught her right before she hit the hard floor. Jeremy, still stiff and dizzy, helped me. We half walked, half dragged Stella into the family room and plopped her into the nearest chair.
She sat by the fire, staring at it.
“Another person. Behind me.” Jeremy sat down hard on the couch.
