Chapter 12
Grant returned to the farmhouse two nights later.
Bad decision.
Marco caught him at the gate.
He still believed the original card was inside.
When I entered the room, he was furious.
Not frightened.
Yet.
“Where is it?”
I sat across from him.
“You starved babies over a memory card.”
“They weren’t starving.”
I looked at him.
“You really like that sentence.”
His jaw tightened.
“Sarah could have ended this anytime.”
“By giving you what Vincent wanted.”
“Yes.”
There.
No shame.
Simple transactional cruelty.
“Did Vincent tell you to withhold formula?”
“No.”
I believed him.
“Rebecca?”
“No.”
“Then who decided?”
Grant shrugged.
“I needed pressure.”
I leaned back.
“You picked infants.”
“I picked what Sarah cared about.”
That was worse.
He did not hate the twins.
He barely saw them as people.
They were buttons to press.
I stared at him.
“And Lily?”
“She was stubborn.”
“She’s five.”
“Exactly. Easier to scare.”
I felt my anger go still.
Grant noticed.
Good.
Then he made his final mistake.
“You don’t even know those kids.”
I looked through the window.
Lily sat beside Sarah feeding Owen.
Noah slept against her leg.
Three children I had known less than a week.
Yet they were already more familiar to me than the man sitting across from me.
“You’re right.”
Grant smiled faintly.
“I didn’t know them.”
His smile widened.
I continued.
“But you did.”
It disappeared.
“You knew exactly how hungry they were.”
Silence.
“You knew Lily counted every dollar.”
Nothing.
“You knew Sarah would rather suffer herself than let the babies go without food.”
I leaned closer.
“And you used knowing them to hurt them better.”
Grant looked away.
That was the difference between us.
May you like
My ignorance had failed them.
His knowledge had been weaponized.
