Chapter 3 - The Blue Notebook
I took all three kids upstairs.
Melissa tried to follow.
"No."
"Jack, I'm their mother."
"Then you can explain why one of them was standing hungry while two were eating."
Her jaw tightened.
"You are making this dramatic."
"No. I'm finally seeing it."
I called my sister Rachel and asked her to come over.
Then I sat on Owen's bed.
"How long?"
He stared at his socks.
"How long what?"
"How long has she been treating you differently?"
His shoulders lifted.
"I don't know."
"Owen."
"Since summer, maybe."
It was October.
Four months.
My chest tightened.
"What happened in summer?"
He glanced toward the door.
"She found Grandma's blue notebook."
I froze.
My mother, Evelyn, kept a blue leather notebook with trust instructions and letters to each grandchild.
I thought it had been lost when we cleared her condo.
"What did Melissa do with it?"
"She got mad."
"At you?"
"At Grandma."
He reached beneath his mattress and pulled out a school composition book.
Inside, in a ten-year-old's careful handwriting, were dates.
JULY 18 - no dinner, said I lied.
AUGUST 3 - took my phone because I asked Dad about Grandma.
AUGUST 21 - Grant came over. They talked about "firstborn."
SEPTEMBER 9 - made me eat upstairs because "real family was having company."
I couldn't breathe.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
"When?"
"Texts."
He swallowed.
"She said you were too busy. Then my messages stopped sending."
I checked his device.
Parental controls had been changed.
My number was blocked during certain hours.
Not by me.
Owen opened his desk drawer and handed me a tiny memory card.
"What is this?"
"The kitchen camera."
I stared at him.
"We don't have a kitchen camera."
"She does."
My son pointed at the smoke detector above his doorway.
"Grant put little cameras in three rooms."
"How do you know?"
"I saw him."
May you like
Then Owen added the sentence that made me stand.
"There's one in your office too."
