He was staring at that bin.
“I don’t — I don’t know why Dad put my name on that.”
Ms. Richards came in.
“Byron instructed me to play the first recording in this garage with all five of you present. That’s the instruction.”
Greg took a step back toward the driveway.
“Why are you scared?” I asked him.
“I’m not scared. Chloe, Dad died. We’re standing in his garage looking at baby furniture he never told anybody about. I’m allowed to have a reaction.”
And that’s when I understood something about my brother that I had never once let myself see.
Greg has always been extremely good at sounding reasonable.
I stepped aside.
“Play it.”
What My Father Said From That Workbench
He came up on that screen sitting at his bench. The crib behind him was still in pieces.
He looked older than he had in 2019. The recording was dated on the label in his handwriting.
“Chloe. I’m sorry this is happening when I’m not there to answer for my own part in it.”
My throat closed up.
Greg was looking at the floor.
Dad leaned toward the camera.
“Greg. I asked you three times to tell your sister the truth. Three separate times, and you promised me you would.”
“Turn it off,” Greg said.
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Chloe. Please.”
“No. I want to hear my father.”
Ms. Richards let it run.
“Since you chose silence,” Dad said, “I’ve chosen witnesses.”
Greg put both hands over his face.
What He Had Been Doing for Five Years
“Chloe didn’t abandon this family. She didn’t ignore anybody’s invitations.”
Aunt Sandy stepped closer to the threshold.
“What does he mean?”
“Greg changed the messages,” Dad said. “He told Chloe you all wanted distance. Then he told the rest of you that Chloe wanted it.”
And my aunt turned and looked at me.
“I called you three times on my birthday, honey. Before we sat down.”
“Greg said you’d gone out of town for it. He told me Dad had told him.”
“I never left the house. We ate here.”
Sadie moved up next to her.
“He told me you didn’t want to come to my wedding.”
I turned around.
“You told me she wanted immediate family only.”
Sadie’s voice broke.
“Chloe, you are immediate family. You are the closest thing I have ever had to a sister.”
I looked at Uncle Nolan.
“Greg said Thanksgiving got canceled in 2021 because you were sick.”
“We waited on you until seven-thirty.”
