She Steps Out Of Betrayal's Shadow To Rebuild Her Broken Home novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Sapling

Zachary cracked eggs into a bowl in Dorothy Harlow's kitchen, and Dorothy watched his wrist.

"You're beating them," she said. "Whisk. Don't beat."

"It's the same thing, Mrs. Harlow."

"It is not. Melinda, tell him."

"I'm not getting into it," Melinda said from the table, with her chin in her hand.

Posy sat across from her with a glass of orange juice and an expression of great joy.

"Grandma, he put the pan on the wrong burner."

"I heard."

"It's the only burner that works," Zachary said.

"Then fix the others, Maddox, and stop pretending."

He grinned at the pan.

It was the first time Melinda had seen him grin with nothing behind it, and her chest went warm.

Dorothy turned the newspaper over and tapped a short column.

"Bianca pleaded yesterday," she said. "They've called her a cooperating witness. The prosecutor says Leland's lawyers have asked for bail three times."

"And?"

"And the judge in the blue blazer has retired for health reasons, and the new one said no." Dorothy folded the page. "Eat your eggs."

Posy ate hers in four bites.

"Can we do the trees now?" she asked.

They carried the six pots out to the lawn in a wheelbarrow.

The tent was gone. The crew had taken it down on Monday, and the grass where it stood was pale and flattened.

The stump sat in the middle, and the banner from the party lay folded on top of it.

Melinda took the banner away and put it in the wheelbarrow with the rest of the trash.

Zachary chose the strongest of the six and measured off ten feet from the stump with a tape.

He dug the hole himself, with a long-handled spade, while Posy hovered at his elbow.

"Deeper," Posy said.

"It's deep enough."

"Grandpa put whiskey in his."

"Did he?" Zachary looked at Dorothy. "Who told you that?"

"Mommy."

Dorothy sighed, went into the house, and came back with a bottle with an inch of amber in it.

"He'd want it done properly," she said, and tipped it into the hole.

Posy held the pot while Zachary eased out the root ball.

It was small and white and tangled, no bigger than a fist.

The sapling stood about a foot tall with a leaf unfolding at the top.

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