Andrew pleaded guilty to his own role in the forgery and received probation, community service, and financial obligations under the judgment. His cooperation mattered. So did the fact that he had knowingly signed.
At his sentencing, he looked toward me only once.
I kept my hands in my lap.
I would not smile to make it easier.
Outside the courtroom, Rebecca passed us between two officers. She looked at Lillian.
“You let this happen.”
Lillian gripped her sister’s arm.
“No,” she said. “I stopped helping it happen.”
Then Rebecca was gone through the doors.
Nobody cheered.
Lillian sat on a bench and stared at the place where her daughter had disappeared. I sat beside her. For a while, we were simply two mothers with nothing useful to say.
“I keep remembering her at seven,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“Does that ever stop?”
“I don’t think remembering has to stop.”
She pressed a tissue against her mouth.
I put my hand beside hers on the bench. After a moment, she took it.
Andrew moved into a small apartment near his warehouse job. He filed for divorce, and the final decree divided what little remained without undoing either of their obligations.
He sent me a letter each month.
The first ones were full of explanations. I put those away unread after the opening paragraphs.
Then one arrived that began, I lied because telling the truth would have required me to change my life.
I read that one to the end.
He enclosed a repayment schedule for the household expenses he had let me cover while he was working. Nora helped put our agreement in writing.
I did not need the money as much as I needed him to understand that it had been mine.
He began paying.
One month at a time.
CHAPTER 5 – A Place at the Table
The first time I invited Andrew back, I asked him to come for one hour.
He arrived five minutes early and waited on the porch until the appointed time.
Through the curtain, I watched him looking at the flowerpots.
