I’M PRACTICING WALKING FAST.
MOM SAYS MAYBE ONE DAY I CAN HEAR THE BIG CHURCH PIANO.
No signature. None needed.
I stood there with the paper in my hand and listened to the last of the congregation drift out, shoes tapping over tile, voices low, doors opening and closing without scaring me anymore.
My parents gave me life, then treated it like something they could set down and reclaim later. Evelyn gave me something harder and better. She stayed long enough for me to believe I was real even when nobody claimed me.
I still don’t know what my sister and I will ever be to each other. I know what Caleb is. He’s a child who got pulled into a debt he never made.
That matters.
So does this: helping save him did not make my parents right. It made me free to choose the kind of person I wanted to be without asking their permission.
A month later, Caleb mailed me another drawing. This time the knight was standing beside a piano.
When he’s strong enough to visit St. Agnes, I’ll decide what song to teach him first.
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