Chapter 4: Grandma's Envelope

I texted Dani a heart and told her I'd see her Saturday.

She left at noon with a kiss on my cheek and a shopping list for the party.

I locked the door and slid the chain into place.

Then I went to the bottom drawer of my desk and took out the envelope.

Grandma had given it to me in the hospital, a month before she died.

It was thick cream paper, sealed with tape, and written across the front in her shaky hand: For the day you are finished with them.

I had been twenty. I thought she meant my first fight with Mom.

I had kept it unopened for seven years because I was afraid it would say I was wrong to be hurt.

I sat on the kitchen floor in the green gown and tore the tape.

Inside were two things, a folded letter and a stack of copied papers.

The letter was in her handwriting.

Tara, my darling.

If you're reading this, you've stopped asking them to love you. Good.

I should have taken you out of that house when you were thirteen and I saw what Dani did to the dog. I was a coward and I'm sorry.

The other papers are what I found when your mother's younger sister died. I couldn't bring myself to use them while I lived.

Dani is not your sister. She is your cousin on your mother's side, and not my blood at all.

Her mother was Joyce's sister. She died in a car crash when Dani was a baby, with no husband and no will.

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