Chapter 11: The Long Note

The page with Tobias's name on it was waiting in a lawyer's office until Monday, and I had thought about little else for two days.

I had not told Tobias what the lawyer said about the underlining.

The storm had pushed Joy's winter concert from December to the third of January.

The school gym smelled of floor wax and hot chocolate.

Two hundred parents sat on folding chairs facing a stage made of risers, with a paper snowman taped to the back wall.

I sat in the fourth row with Tobias on my left.

I had told him he didn't have to come, and he had put on a clean shirt and said, "I'd like to hear her."

Joy stood in the front row of the first graders, in a white paper snowflake headband, scanning the crowd.

She found me and waved with her whole arm.

I waved back.

Then she found Tobias and waved at him too, and he lifted a hand.

"She's decided you're her uncle," I said.

"I'd be honored."

The side door of the gym opened.

Colin walked in with an armful of lilies and a woman in a gray coat beside him.

The woman carried a clipboard.

"The visitor," I said. "The court's supervisor."

"He's allowed to be here," Tobias said.

"He's allowed. I just hope he behaves."

Colin walked up the center aisle with the lilies in front of him.

Heads turned all the way down the rows.

A couple of the mothers knew him from school pickup, and he nodded at them.

He stopped at the end of my row.

"Laurel," he said, loud enough for the third row. "I'm so glad we could be here together as a family."

"Sit down, Colin," I said.

"I brought flowers for Joy."

"She'll like them."

"I'd like to say something to her after. I've been thinking a lot about what I did."

A woman in the row behind me whispered something, and I felt every ear tilt toward us.

"After," I said. "Not now."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Threw Us in the Snow. I Owned Everything. from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.