Her hair had begun growing back.
Very short.
Soft.
She touched it self-consciously.
“Do I look terrible?”
I stared at her.
For four years, I had imagined coming home to the woman I left behind.
But standing in front of me was someone different.
Someone who had survived eleven months of illness, neglect, fear, and loneliness.
I walked over and kissed her forehead.
“No.”
My voice broke.
“You look like the strongest person in this entire family.”
Clara started crying.
Then so did I.
The settlement money helped.
But it wasn’t the thing that saved us.
Money had been the reason I left.
Money had been the reason I worked myself half to death.
Money had been the reason Vivian and Derek believed they could control everything.
In the end, the most important thing I brought home from Canada wasn’t a million dollars.
It was the realization that providing for someone means nothing if you stop seeing what they’re going through.
And greed?
Greed didn’t need a complicated trap.
I only had to tell my family there was more money coming.
They built the trap themselves.
