Chapter 6 - Rebuilding the Ruin
Word count: ~1,500 words
Over the next three weeks, our apartment underwent a complete transformation.
The first thing I did was change the door locks to high-tech biometric smart locks that only opened for my fingerprint and Jessica’s. I packed up every single item belonging to Carmen—her clothes, her shoes, her expensive dresses bought with my money—and had them shipped in three large wooden crates directly to Uncle Richard’s house in Baltimore, with the shipping fees billed to his address.
I took a three-week leave of absence from my project management job.
We brought in a child psychologist named Dr. Sarah Vance to help Olivia process the trauma. At first, Olivia was hesitant to speak, sitting quietly in sessions holding her hands behind her back. But slowly, under Dr. Vance’s gentle guidance, Olivia began to open up.
"Grandma said if I was good, she wouldn't lock Mommy in the pantry," Olivia confessed during one session, her tiny voice breaking my heart all over again.
"Grandma was wrong, sweetie," Dr. Vance reassured her softly. "Grandma was very sick and mean. You and your mommy are safe now. Nobody will ever lock anyone in this house again."
Meanwhile, I focused on restoring Jessica.
I took her to top medical specialists to treat her wrist and hands. I took her shopping to buy new clothes, hired a personal chef for two weeks to make sure she had nutritious, beautiful meals, and brought her back to her passion—interior design, which she had abandoned when Carmen moved in.
One evening, while Olivia was happily watching cartoons in the living room, Jessica sat at the kitchen island, looking at a digital design tablet I had bought her.
"Zayden?" she called out softly.
I walked over, wrapping my arms around her shoulders from behind. "Yeah, babe?"
"I want to redesign the apartment," she said, looking up at me with a spark in her eyes I hadn't seen in over a year. "I want to paint over the walls. I want to change the furniture. I want to erase every memory of her from these walls."
"Whatever you want, Jess," I said, kissing her cheek. "We’ll gut the whole place if that’s what it takes."
She smiled—a real, genuine smile that reached her eyes.
However, our peace was temporarily interrupted the following morning when my attorney, Marcus Sterling, called with news regarding Carmen’s legal status.
"Zayden," Marcus said over the phone. "Carmen’s public defender has filed a motion for a bail reduction hearing tomorrow morning. They are attempting to claim she is a frail senior citizen with no prior criminal record who poses no flight risk."
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"What are our options?" I asked, my jaw tightening.
"We need to show up at that hearing," Marcus advised firmly. "You, Jessica, and the medical documentation. We need to make sure the judge sees the raw reality of what she did before they even think about letting her walk free."
