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

Vanessa froze with her hand in midair.

“I bought it.”

“That shop on Main Street gets ninety dollars for a silk scarf,” I said.

“I saved up my own money from the garden sales,” she said.

Her arms folded across her chest, and her left shoe started tapping the rug.

“Am I not allowed to have one nice thing in this house?”

“I never said that,” I said.

“You don’t need to say it,” she said.