Chapter 12 - NINE DAYS ENTERED THE LIVING ROOM
We met at my parents’ house because Elaine refused to enter an attorney’s office and Richard refused to come to mine.
Anna waited outside with Karen Ruiz. They agreed I could leave at any time. Noah insisted on coming.
“I want them to see me,” he said.
Richard stood at the far end of the living room in a burgundy sweater. Elaine sat rigidly on the couch in her blue suit. Melissa remained near the fireplace. Troy positioned himself beside the front door.
I raised the mountain note.
“You left us in the mountains to die.”
Noah flinched at the word die, but he did not look away.
Elaine covered her face.
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“You’d taken enough from us,” he said. “Money, time, responsibility. Every problem became something the family had to carry.”
“I owned part of the company.”
“You abandoned it.”
“My wife was dying.”
“And the rest of us were trying to keep forty families employed.”
Noah gripped his backpack.
“We waited nine days for help,” he said.
Melissa turned away.
Troy moved when I stepped toward Richard, blocking the door as though I might run past him instead of leave.
I looked at him.
“Who paid to move both cabins?”
“The company.”
“Who canceled the retrieval?”
Troy glanced at Richard.
Richard said, “I did.”
Elaine lowered her hands.
Troy stared at him.
Richard continued. “Troy told me Daniel had the beacon and was moving toward the highway. I believed a night outside might finally make him understand what other people had been carrying.”
“You had the beacon at the office,” I said.
Richard’s certainty weakened.
“Troy gave it to me after we returned.”
“No,” Troy said quickly. “You took it from the truck.”
“Because you said Daniel had another one.”
“There was never another one.”
The sentence escaped before Troy could stop it.
Melissa closed her eyes.
Elaine whispered, “You knew he had no way to call.”
Troy stepped away from the door.
“I knew there was a pickup.”
“You canceled it,” Melissa said.
“Richard approved the cancellation.”
“Because you told him Daniel had been seen near the highway.”
Troy’s voice rose. “I was trying to keep the bank from taking everything!”
Noah opened the hidden seam in his backpack and removed Elaine’s second note.
She recoiled when he held it out.
“You told me a man would bring us back before dinner,” he said. “Did you check if he came?”
Elaine could not answer.
Noah placed the note on the coffee table.
“I don’t want any of you saying this was to help my dad.”
Richard sat down as though his knees had failed.
Troy reached for the front door.
Melissa stepped between him and it.
May you like
“No,” she said. “You don’t leave before telling them what you did.”
For the first time since the clearing, someone in my family chose to stop the person walking away.
