Chapter 4 - What Marcus Knew
I did not sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my mother's text.
Please don't drag Marcus into this.
Six words.
Six words that should have been impossible.
Detective Reed had told me not to respond, so I did not.
At 7:15 the next morning, a child advocacy center coordinator called to schedule Rosie's forensic interview for 9:30.
She told me I would not be in the room while Rosie spoke to the interviewer.
My first instinct was to object.
Then I remembered what had happened every time my family controlled a room.
I agreed.
Rosie ate half a banana and three bites of toast before we left Elena's apartment.
She wore a yellow sweatshirt Elena had bought late the night before because the pale blue hoodie had been taken into evidence.
Rosie asked where it was.
"The police are keeping it safe for a little while."
"Why?"
"Because it might help them understand what happened."
She thought about that.
"Will they give it back?"
"Yes."
I hoped that was true.
The child advocacy center did not look like a police building.
There were murals on the walls, baskets of toys, soft chairs, and a fish tank filled with orange and silver fish.
That was intentional.
Nothing about it was supposed to feel like an interrogation.
A woman named Kendra introduced herself to Rosie.
She wore jeans and a green cardigan.
She asked Rosie whether she liked drawing.
Rosie nodded.
Then the two of them disappeared through a door without me.
I sat in a small conference room with Detective Reed and Marisol.
A monitor showed the interview live.
I could see Rosie sitting at a little table.
Kendra began with harmless questions.
Rosie's favorite color.
Her cat's name.
What she ate for breakfast.
The difference between something that really happened and something someone only pretended happened.
Rosie answered carefully.
Then Kendra asked about the birthday party.
My chest tightened.
Rosie told her about the dinosaur present.
She told her Marcus had a chocolate cake.
She said Aunt Bethany got mad because Rosie and Marcus were running near the kitchen.
Kendra never asked, "Did Bethany hurt you?"
She asked, "What happened next?"
Rosie stared at the tabletop.
"She took me."
"Where did she take you?"
"Bathroom."
"Tell me everything that happened in the bathroom."
Rosie went quiet for almost thirty seconds.
Nobody in our room moved.
Then Rosie said Bethany closed the door.
She said Bethany told her crying babies were annoying.
She said Bethany had the little sticky arrows from Marcus's game.
She called them poppers.
Bethany pressed them against Rosie's arms.
Then pulled them off.
Again.
And again.
Rosie said it hurt.
Bethany told her pain made people stronger.
Rosie cried.
Bethany told her that crying meant she had to do another one.
I put both hands over my mouth.
Marisol slid a box of tissues toward me.
I did not touch it.
Kendra asked what happened to Rosie's cheek.
Rosie raised her hand and touched the bruise.
"I tried to go."
"Then what happened?"
"She pushed me back."
"Show me what you mean by pushed."
Rosie pressed both hands forward in the air.
"Where did you go?"
"On the sink."
"Did part of your body touch the sink?"
Rosie nodded.
"My face."
My eyes burned.
Kendra asked whether anyone else came into the bathroom.
Rosie looked toward the door.
"Grandma."
The room around me disappeared.
"What did Grandma do?"
"She said stop making noise."
Kendra waited.
"Did Grandma say anything else?"
Rosie nodded.
"She told Aunt Bethany Daddy was looking for me."
My stomach turned.
"Then what happened?"
"Aunt Bethany said I had to stay until my face wasn't crying."
Kendra asked what that meant.
Rosie shrugged.
"No tears."
Then she described crawling behind the toilet after Bethany left.
My mother had not just known Rosie was in the bathroom.
She had gone inside.
She had seen her.
And she had walked out without bringing my daughter to me.
I lowered my head.
Detective Reed did not speak.
On the monitor, Kendra shifted gently to another topic.
"You said something about Marcus and the quiet game."
Rosie's shoulders tightened.
"Tell me what you know about that."
"He said don't cry."
"When did he say that?"
"Before."
"Before what?"
"Before Aunt Bethany took me."
Kendra asked what Marcus had told her.
Rosie said Marcus warned her that if his mother said quiet game, she should not cry because crying made the game longer.
Detective Reed leaned forward.
Marisol wrote something down.
Kendra asked Rosie whether she had ever played the quiet game before.
Rosie shook her head.
"Did Marcus tell you he had?"
Rosie nodded.
"What did he say happened?"
Rosie looked uncertain.
"He said it hurts."
That was all.
Kendra did not press her.
The interview lasted forty-eight minutes.
When it ended, I went into the hallway and waited for Rosie.
She came through the door holding a purple stuffed octopus the center had given her.
She ran into my arms.
I wanted to tell her I was sorry.
I wanted to apologize for every birthday, every holiday, every time I had brought her into a house where people protected cruelty.
Instead, I told her the one thing she needed to hear.
"You did really well."
Rosie held up the octopus.
"His name is Pancake."
"That's a very good name."
She smiled.
Then Marisol took Rosie to another room to color while Detective Reed spoke with me.
He closed the conference room door.
"Based on the interview and medical findings, we are moving forward quickly."
"With Bethany?"
"Yes."
"And my mother?"
He paused.
"We are investigating whether she failed to protect Rosie and whether she participated in concealing evidence."
The language sounded too clean for what I had watched.
My mother had walked into a bathroom and told an injured child to stop making noise.
There should have been a legal phrase uglier than failed to protect.
"What about Marcus?"
"Child services is arranging a separate welfare check and interview."
"Does Daniel know?"
"He does now."
I watched Detective Reed's face.
"How did my mother know I had mentioned Marcus?"
"We are looking at that too."
"You think someone told her?"
"I think there are several possibilities."
He would not say more.
Before I left, he gave me another piece of bad news.
Bethany had filed a formal complaint against me for striking her.
The prosecutor would review it independently from Rosie's case.
"So I could be charged?"
"Yes."
I stared at him.
"After what she did to my daughter?"
"Those facts matter."
"But?"
"But the slap happened in the dining room after Rosie was already in your arms."
I understood.
It had not been self-defense in the immediate legal sense.
It had been rage.
I could explain it.
I could not pretend it was something else.
"If they charge me, they charge me."
Detective Reed studied me.
"Do not make that your focus right now."
"Easy for you to say."
"Actually, no."
His voice stayed level.
"Your sister may be counting on you becoming angry enough to make her version of you believable."
That sentence followed me home.
At noon, a locksmith changed both exterior locks on my house.
At 12:47 PM, my employer called.
Someone had emailed my supervisor a screenshot of Bethany's post.
The sender claimed I had a history of violent behavior around children.
My supervisor sounded uncomfortable.
"We are not taking action based on a social media allegation."
"But?"
"But I wanted you to know it was sent."
I asked for a copy of the email.
The sender address used a name I did not recognize.
Detective Reed asked me to forward it.
At 1:20 PM, my landlord called.
My mother had contacted the property office asking whether she could be let into my house to collect Rosie's clothing.
The manager refused.
I added that to the growing file.
At 2:03 PM, Daniel finally called from a police station.
He sounded exhausted.
"They interviewed Marcus."
I gripped the kitchen counter.
"How is he?"
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then I heard him crying.
I had known Daniel my entire life.
He was my cousin, technically, but he had spent so much time at our house growing up that he felt more like a younger brother.
I had never heard him cry.
"Daniel?"
"He thought it was normal."
The words came apart in his mouth.
"What was normal?"
"Bethany hurting him when he cried."
I closed my eyes.
"Is Marcus with you?"
"No."
My heart jumped.
"Where is he?"
"Child services placed him with Ryan's sister for tonight."
I did not know what to say.
Daniel kept talking.
"Marcus told the interviewer that Bethany used the suction darts on him before."
My hand tightened around the counter.
"How many times?"
"He doesn't know."
Daniel inhaled shakily.
"He also said she used clothespins sometimes."
I felt physically sick.
"Did Ryan know?"
"Marcus says his dad was usually at work."
"And Mom?"
Silence.
"Daniel."
"Marcus said your mom saw the marks once."
I leaned forward.
"What did she do?"
Daniel's answer was almost a whisper.
"She told him not to upset Bethany."
My mother had known.
Not for twenty minutes.
Not since that afternoon.
For longer.
Maybe much longer.
Then Daniel said something else.
"There is more video."
I straightened.
"From the party?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Marcus's tablet automatically uploaded clips to my family cloud account."
"Did police get them?"
"Most of them."
"Most?"
Daniel lowered his voice.
"One file is missing from the tablet, but I found the thumbnail in my account history."
"What does it show?"
He exhaled.
"Your mother standing outside the bathroom."
I waited.
"And?"
"Your father is with her."
The room went silent around me.
"Dad was there too?"
"I don't know what happened in the clip because the full file is gone."
"Who deleted it?"
"That's the problem."
I heard paper moving on his end.
"The deletion happened at 3:09 PM."
Seven minutes after I drove away.
Daniel continued.
"And the account log shows which device deleted it."
I could barely speak.
May you like
"Whose device?"
"Your mother's phone."
