She Walked Out, and Ten Years Later She Showed Up With Expensive Gifts at a Twelfth Birthday Dinner

“It’s my house,” I said.

Rob looked past my head at the empty hall behind me.

He stretched out one finger, trying to ease his heavy key ring off the dresser without a sound.

“We were planning to talk to you tonight, Daniel,” Rob said.

“Nobody was trying to hide a thing from you.”

“Your car’s hidden in the brush behind my workshop,” I said.

“That was only so the neighbors wouldn’t talk,” Rob said.