CHAPTER 7: 7. The Second Page
Jonah turned over his question sheet. There was a second page. “We also want to know why the scholarship office has your signature on a letter saying Mom refused your help.” Grant’s expression sharpened. “What scholarship office?” Miles explained that their school counselor had encouraged them to apply for a regional family-support scholarship. During verification, an administrator had found an old statement in a donor file claiming that Grant had repeatedly offered assistance and I had rejected it. The statement was dated seven years earlier. “We asked Mom about it,” Jonah said. “She said she’d never seen it.” I remembered the counselor’s call and the unease it left behind. We had not known who supplied the document. Grant stared at the boys. “That was for a foundation report,” he said. “It wasn’t meant for you.” “So it was a lie for donors?” Miles asked. Celeste closed her eyes. I felt the shape of the afternoon change. What began as a reckoning between a father and his sons now touched the public image he had carefully built. I told the boys that questions about documents should be handled with records and adults who understood the process. They nodded. The medals still gleamed against their shirts.
