Chapter 9 - Lila Draws the Deck
The child psychologist's office had no white walls.
That was deliberate.
Soft green paint.
Bookshelves.
A rug covered in roads, houses and cartoon animals.
Dr. Hannah Wu sat on the floor with Lila while Adrian watched through one-way glass.
Lila had colored pencils.
Pip sat beside her.
Hannah didn't ask, Did your stepmother push you?
She asked, "Can you draw where everybody was?"
Lila drew five rectangles.
Adrian's throat tightened.
Five loungers.
Then she drew a yellow circle.
"That's me."
"Where's Daddy?"
Lila added a stick figure near a square.
"Inside."
"Where's Corinne?"
Lila drew another figure.
"Here."
"Who are these?"
"The ladies."
"What were they doing?"
Lila giggled.
Then stopped.
"They laughed."
Hannah remained neutral.
"What happened before they laughed?"
Lila pushed her pencil across the paper.
"Corinne pushed me."
"Show me how."
Lila used two fingers against a small block.
The block slid backward.
Then fell from the edge of the rug.
Adrian looked away.
He had wanted certainty.
Now certainty felt like a knife.
After the session, Hannah met him privately.
"Her account is developmentally consistent."
"Meaning?"
"She isn't giving you an adult narrative. She's remembering pieces—placement, sensation, words, sequence."
"Could she have invented it?"
"Any memory can be contaminated. That's why we minimize questioning."
"But?"
"But she's repeated the core action without significant variation."
Adrian nodded.
"She said Corinne called her disgusting."
"She told me Corinne said, 'You're bad like Daddy.'"
His jaw tightened.
"That's close enough."
Hannah studied him.
"You're angry."
"Yes."
"Don't make her responsible for that."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"Lila is watching you to learn whether telling the truth destroys the world."
That stopped him.
Hannah continued.
"If every time she mentions the yacht you become visibly furious, she may decide silence protects you."
Adrian sat back.
He hadn't thought of that.
"I don't want her protecting me."
"Then show her she doesn't have to."
That evening, Adrian cooked spaghetti at Camille's house.
Or attempted to.
Camille watched him destroy garlic.
"You're rich enough to hire somebody for this."
"I'm capable of cooking."
"You are capable of heating things."
Lila sat at the counter with crayons.
"Daddy burned bread."
"Thank you, witness."
Camille smiled.
"She has credibility."
For five minutes, it felt normal.
Then Lila asked, "Is Corinne coming?"
Adrian stopped stirring.
"No."
"Ever?"
Camille's eyes found his.
Adrian crouched beside Lila.
"I don't know."
Lila considered that.
"She mad?"
"No."
"Are you mad?"
He remembered Hannah's warning.
"A little."
"At me?"
His heart cracked.
"No. Never at you."
"Because I telled?"
"Because grown-ups did things they shouldn't have done."
She looked down at Pip.
"Corinne said you wouldn't believe me."
Everything inside Adrian went silent.
Camille stopped moving.
Adrian kept his voice gentle.
"When?"
"On boat."
"Before she pushed you?"
Lila nodded.
"What exactly did she say?"
Lila squeezed Pip.
"She said Daddy always believes her."
Adrian closed his eyes for one second.
Then opened them.
"Look at me."
Lila did.
"I believe you."
Her face changed.
Not relief exactly.
Something quieter.
She nodded.
"Okay."
Then she pointed at the stove.
"Your sauce is making bubbles."
Camille rushed over.
"Oh, Lord."
The moment passed.
But the sentence didn't.
Later, after Lila was asleep, Adrian called Ruiz.
He told her.
Ruiz went quiet.
"That matters."
"Why?"
"It suggests anticipation."
"Meaning she knew there'd be something Lila might tell me."
"Possibly."
Adrian leaned against the kitchen counter.
"How planned was this?"
"We're still finding out."
"There's more?"
Ruiz hesitated.
Then said, "We recovered a deleted group chat."
Adrian's pulse changed.
"Between whom?"
"Corinne, Sloane, Tessa and Brooke."
"What did it say?"
"I can't disclose everything yet."
"Give me something."
Ruiz exhaled.
"Two days before the yacht, Corinne wrote: 'He needs one night he'll never recover from.'"
Adrian stopped breathing.
Ruiz continued.
"And Sloane replied..."
"What?"
May you like
"'Then make sure the cameras don't.'"
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