Chapter 1: The First Week Without a Safety Net
Chapter 1: The First Week Without a Safety Net
For three days, nobody from my family showed up.
That alone told me how serious things had become.
Normally, when Gage created a disaster, someone expected me to fix it before the week ended.
But this time, the silence stretched.
Then reality arrived.
The pottery shop missed payroll.
A supplier froze shipments.
The landlord demanded payment.
And suddenly the business that everyone praised as "Gage's dream" looked exactly like what it had always been.
A business held together by my money.
Not his.
Mine.
On Friday afternoon, my mother appeared at my front door.
Not to apologize.
Not to ask about Kendall.
She came carrying a folder full of overdue bills.
I didn't even invite her inside.
"Your father is stressed," she said.
"The rent is due."
I nodded.
"I know."
She blinked.
That wasn't the answer she expected.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
She stared at me.
"As if I should fix it."
Her face tightened.
"Family helps family."
I looked past her toward the street.
Funny.
That phrase always seemed to appear when somebody needed something from me.
Never when Kendall needed kindness.
Never when she needed protection.
Never when a grown man threw a handmade gift into her face.
"Did family help Kendall?" I asked.
My mother said nothing.
Because there was no answer.
Not one she could say out loud.
She left ten minutes later.
For the first time in my life, she walked away without getting what she wanted.
That evening, Kendall came downstairs carrying a large sketchbook.
She placed it on the kitchen table.
Inside were dozens of designs.
Furniture.
Boxes.
Custom woodworking pieces.
Beautiful work.
Professional work.
Work far beyond anything a sixteen-year-old should have been capable of creating.
"When did you make all these?"
She smiled slightly.
"While I was making Uncle Gage's gift."
Page after page revealed a talent I'd never fully seen.
And suddenly I realized something.
The wrong person had been receiving support all these years.
Not because Gage deserved less.
May you like
But because Kendall deserved more.
Much more.
