Evelyn’s expression softened just slightly. “That’s a beautiful name.”
Then her eyes lifted back to Maya, and the softness vanished, replaced by something sharp and determined.
“Get in the car,” she said.
Maya hesitated. “Grandma—”
“Get in the car,” Evelyn repeated, and her tone left no room for discussion or debate.
Maya felt heat rush through her—a confusing mixture of anger, embarrassment, and relief all tangled together. She wanted to argue, wanted to maintain some shred of independence, but she was so tired of fighting.
Evelyn opened the back door of the sedan. Maya stood frozen for a moment, uncertain.
Laya looked up at her mother with those trusting eyes. “Mom,” she said, small and steady. “It’s okay.”
The fact that her six-year-old daughter was comforting her, trying to make this decision easier, broke something inside Maya.
She nodded. “Okay.”
Laya climbed into the back seat first, clutching her oversized backpack, and Maya slid in beside her. The moment the door closed, the silence inside felt expensive—warm, protected, and completely separate from the cold morning outside.
Evelyn didn’t start driving immediately. She sat behind the wheel with both hands resting lightly on the leather, staring straight ahead through the windshield.
Then she spoke, her voice calm and measured.
“By tonight,” she said, “I will know who did this.”
Maya’s stomach dropped. Evelyn turned her head to look directly at her granddaughter.
“Grandma, I don’t understand,” Maya said.
“No,” Evelyn replied. “You don’t. And that tells me everything I need to know.”
She pulled out her phone, tapped the screen once, and spoke clearly.
“Call Adam.”
A man’s voice answered almost immediately.
“Mr. Miles, this is Evelyn,” she said in the same tone she might use to order coffee. “Get the property manager for Hawthorne Street on the line. I need simple answers. Who has the keys? Who is currently living there? And whether anyone has been collecting rental payments.”
Maya’s blood ran cold.
Rental payments.
She stared at her grandmother’s profile, at the set of her jaw, at the controlled way she spoke those devastating words. Maya realized in that moment that she wasn’t just embarrassed or confused. She was standing on the edge of something much darker than she’d imagined.
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