Chapter 5
“I thought providing everything meant I was taking care of them.”
Grace did not rush to reassure me.
I appreciated that.
Finally she said, “Providing everything is useful.”
I almost smiled.
“That sounded diplomatic.”
“I’m trying.”
“What would you actually say?”
She considered.
“Children don’t experience love as infrastructure.”
The sentence landed quietly.
“They experience it as presence.”
I looked around Claire’s room.
All my money could preserve the temperature.
Pay cleaners.
Protect fabrics.
Maintain the roof.
But none of it could answer a frightened child at two in the morning.
“What happens now?” Grace asked.
“I was hoping you knew.”
“I’m not your social worker.”
“No.”
“I’m also not staying here permanently.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because the children are attached to me for reasons that came out of a crisis.”
“They trust you.”
“That’s exactly why I need to be careful.”
I frowned.
Grace explained.
“They need stable adults. Not adults who become irreplaceable because they arrived during frightening periods.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“A family therapist. Consistent routines. Fewer staff changes. Clear contact with you when you travel.”
“I’m not traveling.”
“Ever?”
“No.”
She gave me a look.
“Evan.”
“Fine. Not for the foreseeable future.”
“That’s different.”
I sighed.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“Of course.”
“You need to tell them the truth about where you’ve been.”
My expression hardened automatically.
Grace noticed.
“Age appropriate,” she added.
“My children do not need to know my business.”
“I didn’t say they do.”
“Then what truth?”
“That when you leave, it isn’t because you prefer being somewhere else.”
I went still.
“They think that?”
“Sophie does.”
I remembered the question about boarding school.
The careful smile at brunch.
The flinch when I approached.
“Why?”
“Because children explain absence using the information available to them.”
Grace stood.
“And Vanessa gave them an explanation.”
May you like
That evening, Daniel returned.
He had found the reason Grace’s calls never reached me.
