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This is what I do.

I fix things. I shield the family.

“I didn’t mean to,” Ella says, her voice small.

I close my eyes. For one second, I let myself feel it. Her terror. My guilt.

Then I open my eyes. “I know.”

“She hit me.” Ella’s words come faster now, tumbling over each other. “She was waiting outside, and she took your belt, and she kept hitting me, and I tried to make her stop. I didn’t mean to push her that hard. I didn’t⁠—”

“I know.” I stand and go to her. Drop to my knees in front of her and take her hands. They’re cold.

“I killed her,” she whispers.

“No.”

“She’s dead.”

“Yes.”

“I did that.”

“She attacked you.”

“I pushed her.”

“She attacked you,” I repeat, harder. “You defended yourself. She fell.”

“She’s dead.”

“I know.”

Audrey is dead.

Ella is alive.

The footage is gone enough for now.

“Ella.” I take her face in my hands. “I need you to listen to me.”

Her whole body trembles.

“Someone may have seen part of what happened before I deleted the footage.”

Her face goes white. “Deleted?”

“Yes.”

“You saw?”

“Yes.”

“All of it?”

I caress her soft cheek as I nod. “She attacked you. You hear me? I saw that. She hit you with my belt. She pulled your hair. She came at you. You pushed her away. That’s what happened.”

“But the camera⁠—”