Payments toward the house.
Not mortgage payments exactly.
Contributions.
Loans.
Repayments.
Dad touched one entry.
“When your mother and I bought this place, we didn’t do it alone.”
I knew my grandparents had helped.
I didn’t know how much.
“Your grandfather gave us the first down payment,” Dad said. “Your mother’s sister helped when work was slow. Later, when the furniture shop did well, we paid everyone back.”
Mom smiled.
“Every dollar.”
“But your grandfather made me promise something.”
Dad opened the notebook.
On the inside cover, in handwriting shakier than his own, someone had written:
A house should protect the family without becoming something the family fights over.
I read it twice.
Dad continued.
“Your grandfather had watched his brothers stop speaking over property. When he helped us buy this house, he told me never to let the same thing happen here.”
“So the key protects documents?”
