Page 201 of The Encore’s Crown

All I can think is that James Drysdale is dead.

Really dead.

He can’t touch Ma again, or make Rithy feel like something shameful, or drown the whole house beneath the television until no one else is allowed to exist. He’ll never spit another insult at Natalia or look at me like I’m nothing but a disappointment.

The relief arrives so fast it makes me sick.

Natalia reads something in my face. She steps between me and everyone else and holds my face in her hands.

“You don’t have to figure it out right now. There's no right way to feel in this situation.” she whispers.

Ma is alive.

Dad is dead.

I don’t know which truth is harder to hold onto.

Detective Alvarez clears his throat.

"I'll need to ask you a few questions."

Chapter 68

The Altar

Kiri

Detective Alvarez asks when we last saw them, whether Dad threatened anyone, whether there had been violence before tonight, and if we knew about any guns in the house. The questions come fast and flat, built for facts rather than grief.

I tell him about the argument, him insulting Natalia and Rithy. About pinning him against the wall before we left.

Alvarez’s attention hones in on that. “Was he injured?”

“Not that I saw.”

“Who witnessed it?”

“Both of them.”

He writes down Natalia’s name, then asks us to preserve any calls, messages, or voicemails from Ma or Dad. He says someone will contact each of us for separate recorded statements once the immediate crisis has passed. Dana places her card beside his on the table.

“If you remember anything else, even something that feels insignificant, call,” Alvarez says. “We’ll give you a few minutes to process this. A nurse will come back shortly and take you to the ICU waiting area.”

Then they leave, and the door closes behind them. Rithy stares at the floor for at least a minute before pulling out his phone.

“We need to call Stefan.”

I look at him. “Now?”

“There are police at the house. Ma’s in intensive care and Dad’s fucking dead.” His voice nearly catches on the last word, but he forces past it. “Someone might've noticed us coming into Harborview in the middle of the night. If this gets online before Stefan and Elise know, they’ll kill us themselves.”

“They can wait.”

“They can’t protect what they don’t know about.”

He’s right, and I hate him for it. We’ve barely been told whether Ma is going to survive, and already the machinery around our lives needs feeding. Managers and publicists. Lawyers. Statements prepared before strangers can turn the worst night of our lives into content. Rithy unlocks his phone, then pauses. His gaze moves to Natalia’s hand wrapped around mine.

“You know they’ll tell the others.”