Were we wrong?
No, we weren’t. She really did kill Aunt Cora. She had caused so much confusion and pain within the short time she had been with us. All of this was her fault. And now she was skating away because she’d killed her grandfather? No, she was playing at something. I watched as they exited the bathroom, new guards going in and locking the door behind them.
“What in the world could they possibly have to say?” I asked as they made their way to the front of the lobby, the doors being opened for them.
“We won’t know until we hear from them,” he replied.
“I only need to hear from one of them.” My mother’s voice came over the speakerphone; I hadn’t realized she was still connected.
“Mel…what does that mean?” my father asked slowly. “We’ve agreed, we will meet them—”
“I will meet with my son. The girl can go to hell with her lies and tricks.”
“Mel!” he yelled and then grabbed my arm. “Go stop her! Go!”
I shifted my balance on my foot as he shoved, but as I watched them come out of the building, I remembered Uncle Declan and Aunt Cora, and Helen and the rest of our family, and I couldn’t move any farther. “Why?”
“What?”
“Mom’s right. We only need to hear from Ethan. She killed family. Let her die.”
“What happened to saving Ethan?”
“We are,” my mother and I said at the same time.
I pulled back my arm, watching closely. Ethan kept her close to him; there was no clear shot…none until someone called their names. It looked like Fatimah Gupta. She rushed out, calling for Calliope, and she turned back slightly.
BANG!
The sound echoed even from here, and Calliope fell to the ground like a house of cards.
“And, so ends the war…” My mother voice rose in joy.
“Let’s hope so…for all of our sakes,” my father replied, putting down the phones.
I couldn’t wait to tell Helen.
CALLIOPE—MINUTES EARLIER
When he stepped into the bathroom, his eyes looked back to me wide in surprise. I wanted to tell him, but his father was still on the line.
“Your father is on the line, would you like to speak to him? I’m trying to get him to call off your mother. They planned on ambushing us…well me. They’d spare you. Either way, can you help me convince him?” Because I was really fucking tired of being in this bathroom with my grandfather’s body like this.
Ethan’s whole body tensed at the mention of his parents…no, not at his parents but what they had planned to do. Finally, he reached for the phone and spoke into it. “Mr. Callahan.”
His eyes met mine as he spoke. “Says the father who was about to ambush his son.”
He shook his head, keeping quiet again before adding, “We all need to talk. Tell Melody to call it off. We will see who betrayed whom first.”
He hung up, and I wished he hadn’t so we could at least hear what they were saying on their end. He didn’t seem to care too much. Instead, Ethan walked over to me and looked me in the eyes. He stared down for a long time, and the longer he stared, the more it felt like he could see right through me. Reaching over, he brought my head closer and kissed my forehead, then stepped away to call for a clean-up crew.
Hopping off the sink, I followed behind Ethan, lifting my dress so it did not get caught in the blood. That would be a dumb mistake.
Then my phone rang.
“She’s pulling off, but we meet tonight.”
“Deal. Thanks, Dad,” I said inside the hall.