Theo and Marin looked uncomfortable, caught in the edge of a family storm they had not created.
“I’m sorry for the confusion,” I told them. “Please continue settling into your new home.”
Brianna’s voice rose. “Your new home?”
I turned to her.
“The house was sold because it belonged to me.”
Richard stared. “What are you talking about?”
“The original deed was never transferred. It remained in my name from the day I bought it.”
Brianna shook her head. “No. That was temporary.”
“Three years is a long temporary.”
Richard’s face reddened. “You can’t sell our home out from under us.”
“I sold my property.”
“We’ll sue.”
“With what money?” I asked mildly. “Your cards were declined in Rome.”
That hit him harder than I expected.
I held out the envelope.
He snatched it from my hand, opened it, and pulled out the storage unit paperwork.
Brianna read over his shoulder.
Her voice cracked. “You moved our things?”
“Everything is preserved carefully. First month is paid. The unit number and access instructions are there.”
Richard looked at me with a hatred he no longer had the power to hide.
“Real family doesn’t do this.”
I met his eyes.
“Real family doesn’t cut a father out of a vacation he paid for and call him needy.”
The street went quiet.
Even Marin stopped pretending to tend the lavender.
Brianna’s expression changed then. Anger, shock, embarrassment, and something almost like grief passed across her face. For a moment, I saw the little girl she had been, the one who once reached for my hand before crossing any street.
Then Richard spoke.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s trying to punish us.”
Brianna looked at the storage papers.
Then at the house.
Then at me.
“Dad,” she said, softer now. “How could you?”
The question nearly broke me because there was a time I would have answered it by apologizing.
Instead, I asked my own.
“How could you?”