And I realized the past might have been even uglier than I knew.
But before I could speak, Mason approached us.
His expression was troubled.
“Dad,” he said quietly, “there's something else you need to know.”
Vanessa spun toward him.
“Mason. Not now.”
He ignored her.
“I heard Mom talking to Grandma last night.”
Daniel frowned.
“About what?”
Mason looked at me.
Then at the twins standing across the auditorium.
His voice dropped.
“About the scholarship committee.”
Vanessa's face drained of color.
“Mason, stop.”
But he continued.
“She said if Eli and Owen won, she would make sure they never received the university research scholarship.”
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Daniel turned slowly toward his wife.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa's silence was answer enough.
And as I watched the woman who had taken my husband thirteen years earlier reach desperately for his arm, I understood that she wasn't finished trying to take things from my children.
