Chapter 18 - THE HOUSE
Erin returned to the house two weeks later with Dana and Leah.
Only to collect clothes.
Nothing more.
The pantry padlock had been cut off.
The broken wedding photo was gone, bagged as evidence.
Mia stayed with Erin’s cousin and did not come.
That had been her choice.
“I don’t want to see the hallway,” she said.
Erin understood.
In Caleb’s room, she packed tiny socks and sleep sacks into a plastic bin.
Then she noticed pencil marks on the wall beside the crib.
Short lines.
Numbers.
Dates.
Mia’s handwriting.
1 bottle.
2 diapers.
Caleb slept 30 mins.
Erin sat on the floor.
Her six-year-old had been keeping records.
Trying to become predictable enough to prevent disaster.
Leah found her there.
“I should’ve seen it.”
“You were surviving too.”
“That doesn’t erase what she carried.”
“No. But guilt won’t carry it for her now. Action will.”
Erin wiped her eyes.
“What does action look like?”
“Therapy. Routine. Food where she can reach it. Adults who show up when they say they will. Letting her be angry. Letting her be six.”
Erin nodded.
In the kitchen, Dana opened one final cabinet.
Inside was a jar filled with coins.
The label read MIA’S BIG GIRL MONEY.
Erin stared at it.
“Travis made that.”
“What was it for?”
“He charged her quarters when she forgot chores.”
Dana’s face hardened.
Erin took the jar down.
“No.”
She dumped every coin onto the table.
Hundreds of little metallic sounds filled the room.
Then she found one folded note beneath them.
In Travis’s handwriting:
Nothing is free. Learn early.
Erin tore it in half.
May you like
“No,” she said again.
This time, it sounded like a promise.
