I wasn’t hiding my family’s money from him out of some clever long game.

I was watching him fail a test he didn’t know he was taking, year after year, and each remember who pays for this roof was another wrong answer, quietly recorded, in a file he never imagined existed.

“Goodbye, Bryce,” I said, and got into the car, and closed the door.

Chapter 9 — The Ultrasound

I wasn’t there for what happened next.

I learned it later, in pieces — from Suzanne’s apology, from Bryce’s own broken phone calls, from the way a family’s story leaks out once it’s cracked.