Desperate for Approval novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Gerlaine's Folder

Grandma's kitchen smelled like coffee and old wood, the same as always.

I got there at noon on Saturday, after the early bus, with my phone buzzing in my pocket.

Thirty-one missed calls from Dad.

Eleven from a number I didn't know.

I put the phone face down on the kitchen table and sat across from Grandma.

She had already put out two cups.

Her hands were folded in front of her, and she wasn't looking at me.

"I've been thinking about it since you left the bus platform," she said. "Since before that. Years."

"Grandma, you don't have to."

"I do." She stood up with a small grunt, pressing a hand on the table. "Wait here."

She went into the bedroom, and I heard the squeak of a drawer that hadn't been opened in a long time.

When she came back she was carrying a brown accordion folder tied with kitchen string.

The corners were soft with age.

She set it in front of me and sat down again.

"The week after your mother's funeral," she said, "a man from a law office came to this house with your father. They brought papers. They said the trucking company's insurance wanted to settle, and there was a policy from Karin's job too."

"Settle what?"

"The accident. They said a sum would be put away for you, for your raising and your schooling, till you were grown."

I untied the string.

The first page was a letter with a blue logo at the top, from an insurance company I'd never heard of.

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