Chapter 4 - The Choice That Cost Sienna Her Father
Laura had saved the messages.
She wasn't trying to build a case when she wrote them.
That was what made them more disturbing.
Two weeks before Noah was born, she'd texted Mark after Trina made a comment during a family dinner about how she was “not rearranging her life around somebody else's baby.”
Laura had written:
I don't care whether she likes me. But if Noah is at your house, I don't want her responsible for him.
Mark had replied:
She won't be. Mom will be there.
Six days later, Laura asked again.
You understand I'm serious about this?
Mark:
Yes. Stop worrying.
Sienna read the screenshots at Laura's sister's kitchen table the next morning.
She felt sick.
Mark had told Sienna a completely different version.
He'd said Laura was “jealous about Trina” and had made vague complaints because she hadn't accepted that their relationship was over.
Sienna had believed him.
Worse, she'd repeated it to Evelyn.
“She thinks every woman around Dad is a threat,” Sienna had joked.
Now Laura sat across from her in slippers, feeding Noah from a bottle while trying not to look exhausted.
“You thought I was crazy.”
“I thought you were angry.”
“I was angry.”
“I know.”
Laura finally looked at her.
“Both can be true.”
Sienna nodded.
There wasn't a defense that wouldn't make things worse.
Her phone buzzed.
MARK.
She let it ring.
Again.
Then a text appeared.
WE NEED TO TALK BEFORE YOU MAKE THIS WORSE.
Sienna showed Laura.
Laura gave a humorless laugh.
“For who?”
Sienna knew the answer.
Mark owned Mercer Home Renovation, a fourteen-person remodeling company that had survived two bad years and one ugly divorce largely because Evelyn had loaned him money and Sienna had taken over bookkeeping after college.
Her father was also her boss.
Her apartment lease was in her name.
Her car was hers.
But almost every paycheck she'd received since twenty-one had his signature on it.
Mark knew exactly how much that mattered.
He called again.
This time she answered.
“What?”
“Come to the office.”
“No.”
“Don't do this over the phone.”
“I'm not doing anything over the phone.”
“You gave Laura those messages?”
“They were her messages.”
“You know what I mean.”
“What I know is you promised Trina would never be responsible for Noah.”
“She wasn't.”
Sienna closed her eyes.
“She was holding him in a glass jar.”
“And you hit someone in the head with a fire extinguisher.”
There it was.
The leverage.
“You think I don't understand what happens if Trina presses charges?”
Sienna's stomach tightened.
Mark continued.
“Everybody made mistakes yesterday.”
“No.”
“Sienna.”
“No. That sentence is exactly why I'm done.”
Silence.
“Done with what?”
“Working for you.”
His voice changed.
“You walk out now, don't expect me to keep your position open.”
“I don't.”
“Sienna.”
“And I'm giving DCFS everything I saw.”
This time the silence lasted longer.
When Mark finally spoke, his anger had disappeared.
“Don't.”
Not don't betray me.
Not don't exaggerate.
Just don't.
Sienna looked through the kitchen doorway at Laura holding Noah.
“Why?”
Mark hung up.
Twenty minutes later, Sienna's access to the company accounting system stopped working.
She had expected retaliation.
May you like
What she hadn't expected was how quickly it came.
Or what that speed suggested her father was desperate to keep her from finding.
