She swallowed.
“But I didn’t know any of this.”
I believed her.
That surprised me.
Linda scoffed.
“Oh, please. Now you two are going to become best friends?”
Ava turned toward her.
“No.”
Her voice was steady now.
“But I’m done being your weapon.”
Linda stared.
Ava pulled out her phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the police.”
Linda lunged toward her.
Grandpa stepped between them.
“You wouldn’t,” Linda said.
Ava’s eyes filled again.
“You stole from Grandpa. You stole from Amelia. **You stole from me.** And you tried to sell property that belonged to her.”
Linda looked at me.
“Amelia.”
The desperation in her voice awakened something old in me.
The instinct to fix everything.
Forgive quickly.
Make her comfortable.
For twenty-four years, that instinct had controlled me.
This time, I let it die.
“My name was on the paperwork,” I said quietly.
She blinked.
