The piano is destroyed. There is no way it can ever be rebuilt.
Luckily, he didn't destroy the small bookshelf with all my sheet music and Nan's bible. It still stands next to the shattered remnants of my piano like nothing ever happened.
A piece of the piano collapses, making a terrible snapping sound. I watch in slow motion as a piece of it slides directly into the bookshelf. Nan's bible wobbles and then falls to the floor.
“You need to punish me more?” I ask into the universe. “That wasn't enough for you?”
The universe doesn't respond.
Chapter 25
I stand in the middle of my destroyed room and wonder what I'm supposed to do next.
I'm not sure who I should call first. Dante? Ethan? The apartment manager? I think that I'll be staying at Dante's place tonight.
Just standing here doesn't do anything, though. I hate seeing Nan's book on the ground. It's always been in a place of respect. Leaving it on the floor feels wrong. I quickly walk over and pick up the heavy book.
A picture falls out of it.
I tuck the book into the crook of my arm and bend over to pick up the picture. It's of my mother, only it looks like something from a crime TV show. She's wearing only her bra and standing against a white background. There are bruises up and down her arms and on her ribs.
I turn over the picture and see her neat handwriting.
The date. A listing of the bruises in the picture and the name of the man who gave them to her and how. John Norwood.
My hand starts to shake. It's proof that he hurt her.
I frantically open the bible and find more. There are journal entries in her handwriting detailing the things he did to her. There are the doctor's notes with every injury and date. There are receipts to restaurants and venues showing that they were together.
My knees give out and I crumple to the floor. I stare in disbelief at what my mother has left me. It's everything I need to open an investigation to him. There's proof that he hurt her. It wouldn't take a leap of logic to believe that he killed her in a fit of rage and then made it look like an accident.
I flip through the pages, trying not to look too closely at the photos, yet wanting to see my mother's face just one more time. I make sure to keep everything as neat as I can.
Being in a slightly illegal business, I don't like going to the police, but today, I can't wait to give them this. With this, I have a chance.
I come to the last page of the bible. Tucked just inside the cover, I see a piece of paper with my name on it. I swallow hard, my heart in my throat.
She wrote this one for me.
My hands shake as I trace her neat letters across the page. It was with me the whole time. I had a letter to me from her sitting in my living room the entire time I was missing her.
I almost didn't want to open it. I didn't want to read the final words because I would never get the chance to read them again. There would be no more secret notes after this one. My mother could only reach up through the grave so many times.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I center myself. And I open her letter.
* * *
Dearest Cara,
If you're reading this, then something terrible has happened.
For that, I am so sorry. These are burdens that no one, especially not a child as sweet as you, should ever have to bear. I have tried to shield you from this as best I can.
John Norwood is not a good man.
I thought the first time he hit me it was an accident. The second, I knew that he enjoyed the power. I tried to leave then. He nearly killed me.
He said if I ever tried to leave him again, he would kill me. He would kill me and take my daughter. I cannot allow that.