Chapter 6
The hallway felt smaller than Summer remembered.
Maybe prison had changed her sense of space.
Maybe betrayal took up more room than furniture.
The baby stroller blocked half her old doorway.
Cardboard boxes leaned against the wall, marked in black marker: diapers, blankets, Austin office, nursery decor.
Austin office.
Summer saw that box and understood the room had not only been given to the baby.
It had become Austin’s expansion.
A life built over her absence.
She looked at her brother.
“Did you ever pack my things yourself?”
He swallowed.
“Mom did most of it.”
Abigail cried harder.
“I didn’t know what to keep.”
Summer looked at the cracked photo frame in her hand.
“So you broke what you couldn’t decide?”
Abigail shook her head.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Nothing was ever like that.
That was the family motto.
It wasn’t like that when Austin lied.
It wasn’t like that when Lawrence told Summer to plead guilty because trials were expensive.
It wasn’t like that when Abigail brought paperwork to the jail and said it protected the house from legal fees.
It wasn’t like that when no one visited after the first six months.
It wasn’t like that when they stopped answering her calls.
Now Summer stood in the entrance soaked from rain, smelling like rubbing alcohol, holding the only recording they had never expected her to preserve.
Sheila’s eyes moved to the phone again.
“What did he get?”
Austin snapped, “She’s trying to scare you.”
Summer looked at Sheila’s pregnant belly.
“I’m trying to make sure your child isn’t born into a house built on a lie.”
Sheila’s face hardened.
“Don’t talk about my baby.”
“Then stop using your pregnancy as a deed.”
The words cut through the hallway.
Even Lawrence reacted.
Sheila’s mouth tightened.
“This house belongs to Austin now.”
Summer looked at Austin.
“Say it.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Say it yourself.”
He did not.
Summer lifted the phone.
“No? Then I will ask the recording.”
Austin’s face changed.
Not anger now.
Fear.
Real fear.
She pressed play.
His recorded voice came through again, a little clearer.
“If she signs before the plea, nobody can unwind it—”
Austin lunged.
Summer stepped back and hit pause.
The hallway erupted.
Abigail screamed his name.
Sheila stumbled away from him.
Lawrence froze.
Summer held the phone high.
“Try that again.”
Austin stood breathing hard, caught in the middle of the house he claimed.
May you like
And for the first time, Sheila looked afraid of him instead of Summer.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Austin’s lunge told everyone the recording was real before Summer ever revealed the full sentence.
