“Let them wonder what she knows,” she said. “Uncertainty will make them careless.”
She sent the message from her office email and copied Elias’s personal address.
For twelve minutes, nothing happened.
Then Elias called my phone.
Then Rebecca’s office.
Then my phone again.
Then Cynthia.
Then Brenda.
It was Brenda’s name that made something in me go still.
She had never called me much before. She texted memes, sent voice notes, dropped by unannounced, but calls were rare.
Rebecca let it ring.
A voicemail arrived.
I pressed play before anyone could stop me.
Brenda’s voice was softer than usual, stripped of its easy confidence.
“Ella, it’s me. I know you probably don’t want to hear from anyone right now. I don’t know what Elias told you, but there are things you don’t understand. Please don’t let his mom control the story. Call me. Just once.”
