Chapter 13 - THE THING UNDER MY BED
I drove to the house because my father asked me to help retrieve my remaining property while Hannah collected the children.
Sophie told me to take someone with me.
My cousin Ben came.
He had read the family messages.
Unlike the others, he had called to ask what happened.
Derek stood in the hallway holding a plastic storage bin.
Inside were old cards, photographs, and the unfinished quilt Grandma had been making before she died.
“You forgot your junk.”
He tipped the bin toward the floor.
Ben stepped forward.
“Put it down.”
Derek looked at him.
“This isn’t your business.”
“You asked the whole family to pick sides.
I came to see the facts.”
Mom appeared behind Derek.
“Naomi, don’t turn this into a spectacle.”
“I came for a quilt.”
Derek dropped the bin onto the carpet.
The lid snapped.
A photograph slid under his shoe.
I knelt and gathered everything.
My hands shook, but I kept moving.
From the kitchen, I heard Lucy ask Hannah whether Grandma was angry because Aunt Naomi didn’t love them.
I stopped.
Hannah answered before I could.
“Aunt Naomi loves you.
Grown-ups are responsible for grown-up problems.”
Derek called toward the kitchen.
“Don’t fill her head with your garbage.”
Dad stepped into the hallway.
“Enough.”
Everyone went still.
Dad’s voice was not loud.
That made it harder to ignore.
“You will not speak to her like that in my house.”
Derek laughed once.
“Your house?
You were ready to hand it over.”
“No.
I was ready to help you.
Those aren’t the same thing.”
Mom reached for Dad’s arm.
“Let’s not do this now.”
He moved away.
“When, then?”
Hannah took the children outside.
Ben carried my bin to the car.
I stayed long enough to hear Dad ask Derek a question.
“Who signed Naomi’s name?”
Derek looked at Mom.
Mom looked at me.
“Naomi always makes us handle everything,” she said.
“No,” Dad answered.
“She handles everything.
That’s how we got here.”
Derek’s face hardened.
He pulled his phone from his pocket.
“You want the truth?”
May you like
He unlocked it.
“Then maybe everybody should hear what Mom told me.”
