Chapter 6 - THE PEOPLE WHO HELPED REENA WITHOUT KNOWING IT
Ellen Mercer cried when Peter told her.
Not loudly.
She sat at his kitchen table with both hands around a mug she never drank from.
“I defended her.”
“So did I, in a way.”
“You hated her.”
“And then I disappeared.”
Ellen looked at him.
Peter didn’t soften it.
“I got mad at Mark. I decided if he wanted space, I’d give him space. Drew paid for that too.”
For the first time since Mark’s funeral, neither of them tried to make Peter’s guilt smaller.
Lily slept upstairs in Peter’s room that first week because she screamed whenever a door closed between them.
Drew slept in the spare room with the door fully open.
Peter left the hallway light on.
Every night.
He took unpaid leave.
His savings dropped quickly.
Orthopedic visits, groceries, car seats, extra childcare paperwork—none of it was catastrophic alone.
Together, they rearranged his life.
Reena called Ellen repeatedly.
At first Ellen ignored her.
Then she answered.
Peter heard only Ellen’s side.
“No, Reena.”
A pause.
“No.”
Another pause.
Then Ellen’s face changed.
“What do you mean Peter was trying to take them before Mark died?”
Peter stood.
Ellen looked at him while listening.
Finally she said, “Send me what you’re talking about.”
A screenshot arrived.
It showed a message from Peter:
If things are that bad, let the kids stay with me for a while. You two figure yourselves out.
Peter remembered it immediately.
He had sent it to Mark after their final argument.
Reena had used it to convince Ellen that Peter always planned to take the children.
But something was wrong.
Peter opened his own copy of the exchange.
There were two more lines beneath it.
I’m not trying to replace you.
You’re my brother. I’m trying to help.
Those lines were missing from Reena’s screenshot.
Ellen stared at both versions.
“She cropped it.”
Peter nodded.
That evening Ellen stopped defending her daughter-in-law.
She also admitted something Peter had not known.
“Mark called me about two months before he died.”
Peter went still.
“He asked if you were still angry.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him what Reena told me. That you wanted nothing to do with them.”
Peter looked away.
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Three adults had helped build the wall between two brothers.
Only one of them had known the wall was fake.
