“So, it’s true. You are alive.”
“We wanted to take you all, we planned to,” Laura said, “but… There were seven of you. And Grace was only four.”
“We had to leave in a hurry that day. We didn’t even have time to come back for the money in that box. The situation was impossible,” Daniel said. He turned to me then. “It’s still impossible. Mom, please, you must reactivate that account. We need—”
Grace cut through his words like a blade.
“No!”
Everyone turned to her.
“It was impossible.
“You left us. You let us think you were dead! You had ten years to explain, but you only came back now for money,” Grace said.
Laura flinched.
I crossed my arms. “I second what Grace said.”
Daniel spread his hands. “You don’t understand what things were like.”
Aaron’s voice came out rough. “Then explain.”
“We were drowning,” Daniel said. “Debt, collections, threats. I thought I could fix it if we got away and got established somewhere else. The plan was always to come back for you.”
“I second what Grace said.”
Mia laughed. “The plan was always to come back? When? In another ten years?”
Daniel’s face hardened. Before he could say anything more, I took the account closure papers from the hall table and held them up.
“The account is closed, and that’s that. I transferred the money into the kids’ college account. I deposited the money from the box in there, too.”
Panic flashed across his face. “No! How will we survive? Mom, be reasonable.”
That response told us everything we needed to know.
Aaron stepped up to my side then and stared at Daniel. “You put yourselves first for ten years. You left us, but Grandma never did. She didn’t have to take seven kids. She could’ve let us go into foster care, but she stepped up, while the two of you ran away.”
That response told us everything we needed to know
Daniel’s mouth opened, then closed again.
