Chapter 14 - The Signature on the Checks
The Westbridge Children's Fund held its public annual reports online. I had never bothered to read them. Mother told me donations bought winter coats, emergency beds, and meals. I believed her because believing was easier.
Now I sat beside Naomi and read every page.
Large sums had gone to Horizon for “rapid placement support.” Gordon Pike had approved the invoices. Vivian, as board chair, had signed the payments. A finance officer had signed them too. None of that alone proved anyone knew a child had been abandoned.
But my mother had received June's letters. She had seen Eli outside the school. She had answered his questions with a lie.
When I confronted her, she did not invite me inside. We stood on the porch where she'd taken my prom pictures seventeen years earlier.
“Did you know Horizon was charging for beds Eli never slept in?”
“I approved grants. I did not inspect bedrooms.”
“Then why did you tell him I was dead?”
Vivian's perfect posture collapsed a little. “Because he'd find you. Because then Lily would find out. I thought I was protecting the family.”
“From what? A hungry child?”
She looked away.
“I saw him one morning,” she said. “He asked for money. I gave him forty dollars.”
I felt sick. “You knew he was sleeping outside?”
“He said he had nowhere to go.”
“And you drove home?”
“I called Gordon. He told me it was being handled.”
“You didn't call child services. You didn't call me.”
She whispered, “No.”
May you like
I walked toward my car. Behind me, my mother called, “If they investigate those checks, I may lose everything.”
I turned once. “Eli already did.”
