Chapter 4
Grant stopped pretending once I showed him Sarah’s face on the screen.
“She’s lying.”
I stared at him.
“You didn’t even ask what she said.”
His mouth closed.
Marco almost smiled.
I did not.
“Where is Sarah?”
Grant folded his arms.
“I told you. Gone.”
Lily stood behind Marco holding Owen.
“No.”
Grant looked at her.
“She left you.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
I stepped between them.
“Don’t say that to her again.”
Grant scoffed.
“You barely know the kid.”
I looked at him.
“And somehow I already know not to leave two babies hungry to punish her.”
His jaw tightened.
There.
Punishment.
That word had landed.
“What did Lily do?”
Nothing.
I stepped closer.
“You told her the twins could survive another hungry night.”
Grant looked away.
“That wasn’t about the babies.”
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“What was it about?”
He said nothing.
Lily answered.
“My backpack.”
I turned.
She clutched the straps.
Grant’s face changed.
Lily continued.
“He said if I gave him Mommy’s secret, he’d buy formula.”
The room became completely quiet.
“How long?”
She looked confused.
“How many times did he make you choose between food and the backpack?”
Lily looked down.
“Three.”
Marco cursed softly.
I did not.
Anger had moved beyond sound.
Grant shrugged.
“They weren’t starving.”
Owen began crying in the next room.
The timing almost felt deliberate.
Grant’s eyes flicked toward the door.
I watched him.
“You used infant formula as leverage against a five-year-old.”
He rolled his eyes.
“She could have handed over the card.”
There it was.
His morality.
Cruelty became the victim’s fault as long as an escape existed.
Give me what I want.
Then your brothers eat.
I looked at Lily.
She had chosen hunger over betraying her mother.
May you like
Five years old.
And Grant had still failed to break her.
