She hesitated.
That hesitation was the first honest thing I had seen from her.
“Ryan was going to send Elise away,” she said.
“Where?”
“To a boarding school.”
I looked at Bell.
“That isn’t true.”
Morgan shook her head.
“He said he couldn’t manage her while you were overseas. He said he needed to make a clean break.”
“Did you hear him say that?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
She said nothing.
Tessa stepped in.
“We saw the paperwork.”
“What paperwork?”
“The school forms.”
My heart tightened.
There had been a school conversation. Months earlier, Ryan and I had discussed whether Elise might benefit from a small residential program connected to my base if my assignment continued. It had been an idea, not a decision. I had rejected it immediately because Elise needed stability, not another separation.
Ryan had told his sisters about the discussion.
They had turned a conversation into a plan.
Bell asked, “Where are these forms?”
Tessa looked toward the house.
“In the blue folder.”
I glanced at the office.
The file beneath the blue folder contained no school forms.
“What forms?” I asked.
“The ones proving he intended to send her away.”
“Did you read them?”
Morgan answered this time.
“No.”
“Then how do you know what they proved?”
She looked down.
“We assumed.”
The word seemed to collapse the entire structure they had built.
Assumed.
Assumed I would leave.
Assumed Ryan would fail.
Assumed Elise needed rescuing from a danger that existed mostly in their fears.
But assumptions did not explain the recording.
They did not explain the threats.
They did not explain why they had searched for the blue folder.
