THE HEIR'S REVENGE

chapter 92

She was growing and it was the best thing I had ever watched happen.

After the table was cleared she sat back down and looked at me.

"Are you going to call Yemi tonight?" she asked.

I looked at her.

"Why would I do that?" I said.

She blinked at me slowly.

"Because you always do," she said. "And because you look like you need to talk to someone and Henry has already done his talking for the day and I am going to bed soon."

Henry made a small sound.

"You are extremely observant," I told her.

"I know," she said. "It is one of my best qualities."

She stood up and collected her rabbit from the chair beside her.

She came around the table and stood beside me.

I looked at her.

She reached up and put her small hand briefly on my shoulder the way an adult might do it. Just once. Like she was patting down something that had come loose.

Then she said goodnight to Henry and goodnight to Mrs Park and went upstairs.

I sat at the table.

Henry drank his tea.

"She is remarkable," he said quietly.

"Yes," I said. "She is."

I went to study after dinner.

I did not try to work. I just sat in the chair near the window and looked at the garden outside. The butterfly garlands were just visible in the dark catching the light from the house windows. They moved slightly in the evening wind.

I picked up my phone.

I called Yemi.

She picked up on the second ring.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," I said. "Were you expecting me to call?"

"Lily texted me," she said.

I stared at the ceiling.

"She texted you," I said.

"She said and I am quoting directly: he needs to talk but he won't ask. So I am asking for him."

I closed my eyes briefly.

"She is six years old," I said.

"She is a very capable six year old," Yemi said warmly.

I shook my head slowly.

Then I said: "How did you know to give her your number?"

"I gave it to her weeks ago," Yemi said. "So she could call me if she needed anything when I was not in the house."

"She is using it to coordinate my emotional wellbeing," I said.

"Yes," Yemi agreed. "She is. I think it is one of her best qualities."

I laughed.

A real one. From my chest. Unexpected and clean.

Yemi laughed too on the other end of the phone.

We sat with that laughter for a moment together across the phone line.

Then she said: "Tell me about today. All of it."

And I did.

I told her about Dr Chen on the stand. About the specific phrase she used. Significant neurological damage. About how hearing it in the courtroom felt different from reading it in a document. About the way Carver had gone after her and the way she had held completely still under all of it.

I told her about the lunchtime room and Mrs Park's food and Patricia's calm assessment of how the jury had responded.

I told her about coming home to Lily asking if the doctor lady was okay.

I told her about the stir fry that Lily definitely had not asked Mrs Park to make.

Yemi listened to all of it. She asked questions at the right moments. She laughed at the right moments. She was quiet at the right moments.

When I finished I felt lighter than I had when I started talking.

"Tomorrow is Marcus," I said.

"I know," she said.

"I do not know how I am going to feel sitting in that room watching him," I said honestly. "He is my father. He is also the man who knew what was being done to my mother and chose not to look." I paused. "Both of those things are true at the same time and I do not know which one I am going to feel more when I see him take the stand."

Yemi was quiet for a moment.

"You do not have to decide which one to feel," she said. "You can feel both. You are allowed to feel both."

I thought about that.

"That is not something I have always been good at," I said. "Feeling two things at once without needing to choose."

"I know," she said. "But you are getting better at it."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"Because six months ago you would have said I feel nothing," she said. "And now you are describing two separate complicated feelings and acknowledging that they are both valid." She paused. "That is growth Ethan. Real growth."

I sat with that for a moment.

Outside the butterfly garlands moved gently.

"Yemi," I said.

"Yes."

"I want to take you somewhere after the trial," I said. "Not Fenwick Street. Somewhere different. Somewhere that is just for a good day and nothing else."

A pause.

"Where?" she asked.

"I do not know yet," I said honestly. "But I want it to be somewhere good. Somewhere that has nothing attached to it. No trial. No Victoria. Not anything. Just a good day."

She was quiet for a moment.

Then she said: "I would like that very much."

"Good," I said.

"Get some sleep," she said. "Tomorrow is important."

"I know," I said.

"Goodnight Ethan."

"Goodnight Yemi."

I put the phone down.

I sat in the study for a few more minutes.

Then I went upstairs and checked Lily's door.

She was asleep already. The star nightlight is on. The rabbit under her arm. Her breathing slow and steady.

I stood at her door for a moment.

Then I went to bed.

Tomorrow Marcus would take the stand.

Tomorrow was going to be difficult in a way today had not been.

But I had the purple ribbon on my wrist and people who showed up without being asked and a six year old who texted my girlfriend on my behalf because she decided someone needed to.

And that meant I was not going to face tomorrow alone.

I never had to face anything alone again.

I had not fully believed that until very recently.

Now I believe it completely.

I closed my eyes.

Sleep came faster than I expected.

And I let it.