The word that changed everything
“It’s leech behavior, honestly.” Something about the word clarified the room the way a very cold glass of water clarifies the early morning. Not because it shocked Eleanor, because she had felt it coming for months. But because saying it aloud had stripped away the last of the plausible ambiguity.
She looked at Megan. Not with fury. With the particular steadiness of a woman who has made a decision.
“Get out,” she said.
This time there was no ambient noise to absorb it.
She stepped further into the room, her posture straight, her hands at her sides, her voice carrying the quality of someone who has given one warning and considers that sufficient.
“Every person in this house who does not have my permission to be here will leave now. If you need more encouragement than that, I will call the police and provide it.”