I nodded slowly. Then I turned and walked deeper into the house without another word. Behind me, Barbara sighed with visible relief. Clare hugged Tyler tighter. Derek said something low and soft, probably trying to calm his own racing heart. They thought I had accepted it. They thought the crisis was over. They thought I was being the mature one in the room.
They had no idea.
I walked through the living room and into the entryway, where a decorative wooden bowl sat on the polished table, full of car keys. My parents’ keys. Clare’s keys. Derek’s keys, the fob stamped with the three pointed Mercedes Benz star. Cold metal settled into my palm when I picked it up. Through the window I could see the black Mercedes AMG GT parked near the boat ramp, gleaming in the morning light. Derek bragged about that car constantly. It was his favorite proof that he was still successful, still important, still somehow better than the rest of us. He talked about it the way some men talk about their own children.
I looked outside for a long moment, then back into the house. Through the living room window I could see Tyler laughing again while Clare smoothed his hair and Derek stood beside them looking nervous but not the slightest bit sorry. No consequences. No accountability. No lesson learned by anyone.
