Chapter 111

Ollie POV

When Mama came to pick me up that day, Miss Patterson and Principal Reeves had wanted to talk to him. I’d waited outside the office, but I could hear some of it through the door.

“—concerns about Oliver’s home situation—”

“—legally his guardian—”

“—if what Oliver described is accurate, then there are serious questions—”

Mama had come out looking pale and shaky, and he’d held my hand so tight it almost hurt as we walked to meet Papa Ramon in the parking lot. That night, I’d heard Mama crying in his room, and Papa Ramon’s voice murmuring softly, trying to comfort him.

I’d realized then that what Samuel had told me was true. That Mama really was my mama, not my brother. That he’d had me when he was very young, too young, and that it made people look at him with pity and horror.

That I was the reason people looked at Mama that way.

I was the reason Mama had suffered.

I was the reason Mama had to run away from Samuel.