“Margaret, there may be consequences for both of them.”
“I understand.”
Linda laughed once, harshly.
“No, she doesn’t. Eddie hasn’t told her everything.”
Edward went still.
Linda pointed at the phone.
“Ask him where I got the signature.”
The room seemed to lose its depth. Margaret could see the table, the phone, her son’s hand, but nothing connected.
Edward’s shoulders dropped.
“From the birthday check you wrote me.”
Margaret remembered the blue envelope. She had put an extra hundred dollars inside because he had looked so tired.
“You photographed it?”
“Yes.”
“You knew why?”
He shut his eyes.
“Look at me.”
He obeyed.
“Yes.”
Gabriella said nothing. There was nothing useful to put between that question and its answer.
Margaret drew one slow breath.
For an instant, she wanted to take back her decision. Edward was still the boy who had once waited up to show her a loose tooth, holding it in his palm like treasure.
Then she saw the yellow note beside the children’s height marks.
“I still want it reported.”
Linda backed away from the table.
“You’ll leave your grandchildren without parents.”
“No,” Margaret said. “You don’t get to put them between yourselves and what you did.”
A small knock came at the door.
Everyone stopped.
Sophie stood in the gap, her face tight.
“Ben wants to know if Grandma has to sleep outside.”
