Chapter 14 - A New Beginning
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The transition to Dallas was smoother than I could have ever hoped for.
I bought a beautiful, three-bedroom house in a quiet suburban neighborhood with good schools. Maya finally had her own room, a massive closet filled with brand-new clothes, and a real bed. She spent the first three days just arranging her books and clothes, marveling at the fact that nobody was going to take them away.
I enrolled her in the local high school, providing her actual transcripts that showed her stellar GPA. The counselors were thrilled to have her.
I also bought her a laptop. The eighteen-hundred-dollar MacBook she was always supposed to have.
When I handed her the box in the kitchen, she cried.
"You don't have to overcompensate, Dad," she sniffled, wiping her eyes.
"I'm not," I promised, kissing her forehead. "I'm just catching up."
Life settled into a peaceful, happy routine. I adjusted my work schedule so I was home every evening for dinner. We cooked together, watched movies, and slowly rebuilt the bond that five years of distance and lies had fractured.
But Evelyn's final words haunted me.
You don't know the truth about Sarah.
Every night, after Maya went to sleep, I sat in my home office, staring at the wall. Evelyn was a master manipulator. It was entirely possible she had just thrown out a cruel, baseless comment to inflict one last wound before going to prison.
But Evelyn was also meticulous. She never did anything without a reason.
I started digging through old boxes in the garage, pulling out files from Sarah's illness. The medical bills, the insurance denials, the endless paperwork that had driven me to accept the out-of-state job.
I found a stack of letters from the insurance company regarding a denied experimental treatment. A treatment that could have extended Sarah's life by years.
The denial was based on a missed payment. A lapse in coverage during the most critical month of her therapy.
May you like
I had been working triple shifts at the time. I had given the money to Evelyn to mail the premium check.
My blood ran cold.
