He Sent Every Dollar, So Why Was My Daughter Starving? novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Father

Emmeline's POV

Kurt took the pen from the drawer and sat Maisy on his knee.

I stood at the counter and did not breathe.

"Daddy, what do I put?"

"What do you want to put?"

"Daddy."

"Then that's what goes on the line," he said.

He wrote a single word in his blocky black pen.

*Father.*

Then he signed his name beneath it, slow and square, the way he had signed the day she was born.

I turned to the window, because my eyes were stinging.

"Mommy's crying," Maisy observed.

"Mommy's happy," I said.

"That's a lot of water for happy."

Kurt laughed out loud, and so did I.

We walked her to school together at eight, one on each side, the form in her fist.

A line of mothers stood at the gate.

They had seen the lunch on the courthouse lawn, and they had seen Lowell led out of his own store in handcuffs.

Not one of them looked away from us.

The woman who ran the bake sale crossed the pavement and took my hand.

"Emmeline," she said. "I'm so sorry. We all believed him."

"He was good at it."

"We should have asked why you were so thin."

"Yes," I said. "You should have."

She flinched, and I let her.

I was done making it easy.

But I held her hand until she let go, and she nodded to me with wet eyes.

Maisy marched up the steps with the form held over her head.

"My daddy signed it!" she announced to the whole playground. "He's home! He's staying!"

Kurt stood at the gate, grinning.

The principal came out to meet us.

"Mr. Gleason. Mrs. Gleason. I owe you an apology." She said it plainly. "I left that gate with one teacher and a form I should have thrown out. It won't happen again."

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