Amber looked toward the photograph of Loretta.
“She had been saving cash for years. Some of it was hers. Some came from church people. Some came from a little scholarship fund.”
Ruth said, “Our scholarship fund.”
Amber ignored her.
“I was supposed to leave in August. Two weeks before I left, I found out almost half of it was gone.”
Ruth leaned forward.
“How much?”
“Just under six thousand.”
Ruth remembered.
Not the theft.
The panic.
Loretta had come into the restaurant one morning with swollen eyes and asked Ruth whether the scholarship payment had gone through.
Ruth had assumed it was because tuition was due.
“What did Loretta say?”
“That she needed it.”
“For what?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Ruth felt something settle uneasily in her stomach.
Amber continued.
“We screamed at each other. I called her a thief. She slapped me.”
Marcus looked shocked.
Amber looked at him.
“Yes.”
He sat down.
“She hit me hard enough that my lip split.”
Ruth closed her eyes briefly.
She had never known.
Amber continued.
“I packed that night.”
“Where did you go?” Marcus asked.
“My friend Denise’s house.”
“And college?”
“I still went. The scholarship covered part. Loans covered the rest.”
Ruth said quietly, “And your mother?”
“She called every day for two months.”
“You never answered?”
“No.”
“Ever?”
Amber looked at Ruth.
“Not for three years.”
