“To them,” she confirmed. “You’re listed as guardian and trustee. You can use it for their needs, but you don’t own it. When they’re adults, whatever is left is theirs.”
I let out a breath.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s good.”
“There’s one more important thing,” she said and flipped a page. “Their parents were very clear that they did not want their children separated. They wrote that if they couldn’t raise them, they wanted them kept together, in the same home, with one guardian.”
“Where’s the house?”
“Okay.”
She looked up at me. “You did exactly what they asked for. Without ever seeing this.”
My eyes burned. While the system was getting ready to split them up, their parents had literally written, Don’t separate our kids. They’d tried to protect them, even from that.
“Where’s the house?” I asked.
She gave me the address.
It was across town.
That weekend, I loaded all four into the car.
“Can I take them to see it?” I asked.
“I think their parents would’ve wanted that.”
***
That weekend, I loaded all four into the car.
“We’re going somewhere important.”
“Is it the zoo?” Ruby asked.
“Is there ice cream?” Cole added.
“You remember it?”
“There might be ice cream after. If everyone behaves.”
We pulled up in front of a small beige bungalow with a maple tree in the yard.
The car went quiet.
“I know this house,” Tessa whispered.
“This was our house,” Owen said.
“You remember it?” I asked.
“The swing is still there!”
They all nodded.
I unlocked the door with the key Susan had given me. Inside, it was empty, but they moved like they knew it by heart. Ruby ran to the back door.
“The swing is still there!” she yelled.
Cole pointed at a section of the wall. “Mom marked our heights here. Look.”
You could see faint pencil lines under the paint.
“Why are we here?”
Tessa stood in a small bedroom. “My bed was there. I had purple curtains.”
Owen went into the kitchen, put his hand on the counter, and said, “Dad burned pancakes here every Saturday.”
After a while, Owen came back to me.
“Why are we here?” he asked.
I crouched down. “Because your mom and dad took care of you. They put this house and some money in your names. It all belongs to you four. For your future.”
“They didn’t want us split up?”
