Nick’s knees buckled as Daisy’s question hit him like a freight train. The porch creaked under their weight as he slumped onto the steps of their Maple Creek home, the weight of years of secrets crushing him.
- “Daisy, I never wanted you to know,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “Your mom, Lucy… she tore us apart.”
Daisy sat beside him, her eyes searching his.
- “Grandpa, tell me everything. I need to know.”
Nick took a shaky breath, staring at the cracked paint on the porch railing.
- “Me and your grandma, Tammy, we didn’t always live here. We moved to Ithaca when we were young, chasing better jobs. Money was tight. Tammy taught high school, best teacher in town. I was a mechanic, always got pats on the back from the boss. Then Lucy came along—our joy, just like you. Smart, beautiful, became a nurse.”
His voice cracked.
- “Everything was great until it wasn’t. Ten years later, we found out Lucy was mixed up with lowlifes. Started with robo-call schemes, then worse. She’d give patients shots at their homes—drugs that knocked ‘em out, erased bits of their memory. Her crew, including her, would rob the place blind.”
Daisy’s jaw dropped.
- “Ten years? You had no clue what she was doing?”
Nick shook his head, eyes wet.
- “We had suspicions—fancy clothes, trips to Fort Lauderdale. She said she had a rich boyfriend. We didn’t want to believe the truth. Then the cops busted her gang, and Lucy went to prison.”
He clutched his head.
- “After that, people turned on us. Tammy’s students, even her colleagues, tore her apart. ‘How can you teach kids right from wrong when your daughter’s a thief?’ they’d say. Someone spray-painted ‘Crook’s Parents’ on our apartment door. We’d scrub it off; they’d do it again. I quit my job. Tammy’s heart couldn’t take it—she had a heart attack and passed.”
Daisy reached for his hand, her own eyes stinging. Nick’s voice broke.
- “I couldn’t stay in Ithaca. Every corner reminded me of Tammy. So I came back to Maple Creek. Nine years later, Lucy got out early on parole. She worked as a janitor, met a local guy, got pregnant. That’s when you were born, Daisy. They planned to marry, start fresh. But her old crew called, pulled her back in. I begged her to stay, locked the doors, but she climbed out a window and ran. More robberies, back to prison. She died there—pneumonia, untreated.”
Nick wiped his face.
- “Your dad, he died hunting, mauled by a black bear in the Adirondacks. Just you and me left. I’m sorry I kept this from you. I was ashamed.”
Daisy hugged him tight.
- “Grandpa, you’re my everything. I wish Max had someone like you.”
She thought of Max, her maybe-brother, alone in the world.
- “Grandpa, can we reach out to Max? Tell him he’s not alone?”
Nick sighed.
- “We can try, but he’s too far gone, Daisy. Still, we’ll pray for him.”
Daisy was determined to rewrite her family’s story.