She reached for him, but he stepped back.
Mom turned on me through the screen.
“Are you happy now?”
“No,” I said.
“None of this makes me happy.”
That was the difference she had never understood.
I did not want Elise’s life destroyed.
I wanted them to stop destroying mine.
Daniel handed the sealed envelope to Aunt Nina, who had been waiting in the hallway.
She entered the office slowly, wearing a navy coat and the expression she used when she had already made a decision.
My mother looked genuinely frightened.
“Nina, please,” she said.
Aunt Nina ignored her and faced the camera.
“Owen, this envelope contains the original matching-fund agreement and a letter from your uncle,” she said.
“It should have been given to you sooner.”
She opened the letter and read aloud.
Uncle Carl had written it shortly before his death.
He said he had watched me become the person everyone called when something broke.
