Chapter 3 - The Price of RescueKaylee did not sleep.
Gerald had placed Mason in the bedroom next to hers after dinner.
The doors remained unlocked during the night, but a motion sensor chimed in the hallway whenever either child stepped outside.
Gerald called it security.
Kaylee called it a warning.
At 2:13 a.m., she heard Mason moving.
She crossed the hallway.
A soft chime sounded downstairs.
She froze.
No footsteps followed.
Kaylee entered Mason’s room.
He was sitting upright.
“I had a bad dream.”
She climbed beside him.
“About Mom?”
He shook his head.
“Grandpa.”
That hurt in a different way.
Tara had always been frightening.
Gerald had not.
Until now.
“What did you see last week?” Kaylee asked.
Mason rubbed his eyes.
“Mom told me to stay in the car.”
“Where?”
“At the grocery store.”
“Grandpa was there?”
“He came to Mom’s window.”
“What did they say?”
“I couldn’t hear everything.”
“Try.”
Mason thought.
“Mom said she needed more time.”
Kaylee’s heart quickened.
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then?”
“Grandpa said Friday.”
“What about Friday?”
“He said, ‘Friday is the last day.’”
Kaylee tightened her grip on the blanket.
“Anything else?”
Mason nodded.
“Mom said, ‘I can’t make them bring that much.’”
Kaylee felt sick.
“Us?”
“I think.”
Mason’s voice broke.
“Was Grandpa making Mom hit us?”
Kaylee immediately shook her head.
“No.”
She did not know whether it was true.
But she knew something else.
“Tara chose to hit us.”
She almost never called their mother Tara.
Tonight it felt necessary.
“Whatever Grandpa did, she chose that.”
Mason nodded.
Kaylee wanted him to understand one thing clearly.
Adults did not get to pass cruelty around like a package nobody owned.
At breakfast Gerald behaved as if nothing had happened.
Eggs.
Toast.
Orange juice.
He even asked whether Mason wanted pancakes.
Kaylee barely ate.
Gerald noticed.
“You need energy.”
“For sorting your money?”
His eyes lifted.
Mason stopped chewing.
Gerald folded his newspaper.
“That attitude will make things harder.”
“For who?”
“You.”
Kaylee stared at him.
“What did you give Mom last week?”
Gerald’s face did not change.
“Money.”
“Why?”
“She owed me.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Adult finances rarely make sense to children.”
“She said she couldn’t make us bring that much.”
Gerald’s fingers tightened around the newspaper.
Mason looked down.
Kaylee had revealed her source.
She regretted it immediately.
Gerald looked at Mason.
“You listened to a private conversation?”
Mason’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t mean to.”
Kaylee moved her chair closer.
“Don’t blame him.”
Gerald stood.
“I blame Tara for many things.”
“Did you tell her to make us sell those coupon books?”
“No.”
Kaylee watched his eyes.
Not his mouth.
His eyes.
“Did you give her the books?”
Gerald remained silent.
That was the answer.
He walked to a cabinet and removed a folder.
Then placed it on the table.
“Your mother borrowed one hundred and eighty thousand dollars from me over four years.”
Kaylee stared.
“For what?”
“Mortgage payments. Credit cards. Legal bills. Things she considered necessities.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“No. I’m eleven.”
Something flashed across Gerald’s face.
Anger.
Quickly controlled.
He opened the folder.
“Tara signed repayment agreements.”
Kaylee saw signatures.
Numbers.
Dates.
“Three years ago, she began helping Bright Tomorrow with fundraising.”
“What is Bright Tomorrow?”
“A charitable organization.”
“Helping who?”
“Families in crisis.”
Mason whispered, “Like us?”
Gerald looked at him.
“Potentially.”
Kaylee almost laughed.
It came out as a bitter breath.
“So Mom made us work for a charity because she owed you?”
“I did not instruct her to abuse you.”
“You told her to get money.”
“I told her to repay her debts.”
“With our money.”
“I expected her to handle her responsibilities appropriately.”
The sentence sounded polished.
Prepared.
Kaylee heard what was missing.
He did not say he had not known.
He did not say he had tried to stop it.
“How much did she owe you Friday?”
Gerald shut the folder.
“That isn’t your concern.”
“How much?”
“Kaylee.”
“How much?”
His voice dropped.
“Four hundred dollars.”
Mason started crying.
Kaylee stared.
Their quota Thursday had been two hundred.
Friday would have been two hundred again.
Four hundred.
Exactly.
Gerald rose.
“Enough.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
Kaylee’s legs trembled beneath the table, but she continued.
“You knew.”
“I knew Tara was fundraising.”
“You knew she was using us.”
“I learned that recently.”
“When?”
Silence.
“Before you went to court?”
Gerald picked up the folder.
“You should be grateful I went to court.”
“Did you report Mom?”
Gerald looked at her.
“Yes.”
The word shocked Kaylee.
He had created the pressure.
Then reported the result.
“Why?”
“Because she crossed a line.”
Kaylee stared.
“What line?”
Gerald’s face became cold.
“She stopped paying me.”
The room went completely still.
Even Gerald seemed to realize he had said too much.
He turned away.
Kaylee’s mind moved rapidly.
Tara had abused them.
Gerald had gotten them out.
Both could be true.
But Gerald had not saved them because they were being hurt.
He had acted when the money stopped.
Gerald picked up his keys.
“You’ll spend today in the office.”
Kaylee asked, “What’s in the blue notebook?”
He stopped.
Mason looked at her.
Gerald slowly turned around.
“What blue notebook?”
“The one in your cabinet.”
His expression changed for the first time.
Not anger.
Alarm.
Kaylee saw it.
And Gerald saw that she saw it.
He walked toward her.
“You stay away from that cabinet.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“What’s in it?”
Gerald leaned down until his face was level with hers.
“The difference between your life being comfortable here and becoming very difficult.”
Kaylee’s hands shook.
Gerald stood.
“We understand each other?”
Kaylee said nothing.
Gerald left.
A few minutes later Mason whispered, “Are we going to look for it?”
Kaylee stared toward the hall.
Then toward Gerald’s keys disappearing from sight.
“Yes.”
Because for the first time since the front door burst open at Tara’s house, Kaylee understood something clearly.
Gerald had not come to rescue them.
May you like
He had come to control the story.
And whatever was inside that blue notebook was the part of the story he could not control.
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