Chapter 14 · Day Seven

"Why didn't you save her?"

I said it before I could stop myself. The tape sat between us on the kitchen counter, label-side up. My mother's handwriting. Daniel's hands were flat on either side of it, like he was holding the whole thing down.

He didn't look up.

"I got there too late."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I have."

I wanted to hit him. Wanted to grab the tape and run. Wanted to rewind seven days and sleep in my car instead of signing his lease. But my hand was still burning where the bruise had been, and the whispers hadn't stopped since I woke up. They were layered now. Three voices, maybe four. All of them saying the same name.

Elsie.

Not my mother. Not Mara. Elsie.

"She came to you," I said. "Two weeks before she drowned. She told you the house wanted her. And you did what, exactly? Gave her a cup of tea and sent her home?"

Daniel's jaw tightened. "She didn't want help. She wanted a trade."

"A trade."

"Her contract for yours." He finally looked at me. His eyes were flat, no sympathy, no apology.