All Chapters of I Heard My Newborn Warn Me of Him: Chapter 11

Outside the window, the shadow of the apple tree fell across the stove.Kayla was asleep in her stroller in the courtyard. The wind pushed against the screen door again and again. The refrigerator hummed softly.I set my bowl down and leaned against the kitchen doorframe, watching Dad lift the remaining ribs from the pot, one piece at a time.His hands were too calloused to my liking. Those calluses had grown from the lathe he worked on when he was 16. Later, that lathe became a factory, which became 30 years of the Stone family's business.The money those businesses created was then moved from one man's hands into another man's… all because of me."Dad.""What is it, darling?""I'm sorry."Dad's hands didn't stop. He placed the biggest rib into my bowl. "What are you sorry for?""The money. Grandpa's money, your money—I gave all of it to him."Dad put the ladle down and turned around. He wasn't a tall man, but when he looked at someone, his eyes were like two nails, driving