Chapter 7 - The Woman They Called Unstable.
Nora wanted to drive to Janet's house immediately.
Leah refused to let her move faster than her injuries allowed.
"You can help Janet without collapsing in her driveway."
They called Janet repeatedly.
No answer.
Then Uncle Paul sent another message saying Janet had finally contacted him from a motel outside town.
She was safe.
She simply did not want Judith to know where she was.
Nora felt relief followed by anger so sharp it left her exhausted.
Judith had already started telling relatives that Janet was confused and emotionally unwell.
It was the same strategy she had begun using against Nora.
If a witness could not be silenced, the witness could be discredited.
Later that afternoon, Janet called through an unfamiliar number.
"I shouldn't have involved you in those recordings."
Nora stared at the red Dutch oven sitting on Leah's counter.
"You didn't involve me. I was already involved."
Janet was quiet.
"Why did you record all of that?"
The answer took time.
"Because nobody remembers what Judith says once Judith decides she never said it."
Nora closed her eyes.
Janet explained that years earlier, she had questioned money Judith controlled for several relatives.
Within days, Judith had turned the family against her.
Graham had helped.
He told everyone Janet was obsessed with old grievances and could not be trusted when upset.
Eventually Janet stopped arguing because every argument became evidence against her.
"I started recording things so I could prove to myself I wasn't imagining them."
The sentence hit Nora harder than she expected.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I saw how Graham looked at you."
Nora waited.
Janet continued.
"I thought maybe he had changed."
Nora's throat tightened.
"He hasn't hit me."
Janet did not respond immediately.
"I didn't say he had."
Nora remembered the kitchen argument.
Graham's hand clamped around her arm.
The stumble into the counter.
His insistence afterward that she had frightened herself by becoming dramatic.
"Dr. Mercer found old injuries."
Janet inhaled sharply.
"What kind?"
Nora told her.
Janet became very quiet.
Then she asked, "Do you remember the lake house last winter?"
Nora did.
She remembered slipping on the back steps after an argument with Graham.
At least, that was the story they told everyone.
"Why?"
Janet's voice lowered.
"I saw Graham follow you outside."
Nora felt the room tilt around her.
"And?"
"A few minutes later I heard something fall."
"You didn't see what happened."
"No."
Janet sounded ashamed.
"But when he came back inside, he told us you had slipped before anyone asked."
Nora remembered lying in the snow with pain in her shoulder while Graham stood above her saying, "Why do you always make everything harder?"
At the time, she believed he was frustrated because she had fallen.
Now she wondered whether he had been angry for a different reason.
After the call, Nora sat in silence.
Leah poured tea and placed it beside her.
"You don't have to solve every memory tonight."
Nora looked down.
"What if I have spent years explaining things away because I loved him?"
Leah did not offer a comforting lie.
"Then you start looking at them without his explanation attached."
That evening, Nora received an email from Graham.
The subject line read: OUR MARRIAGE.
The message was short.
Come home tomorrow at noon.
We can fix this if you stop involving outsiders.
Nora read the final line twice.
If you refuse, I will assume you have chosen to end this marriage and I will act accordingly.
She forwarded the email to Leah.
Then she forwarded it to Melissa, the hospital advocate.
The next morning, Graham sent a photograph.
May you like
It showed several boxes stacked outside the house Nora shared with him.
Her name was written across each one in black marker.
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