What Pride Cost
Chapter 10 - What Pride Cost
Mack did not lie.
He told Eli that he and Daniel had argued about money, marriage, and the future.
Daniel wanted to start a mobile repair business with Grant. Mack thought the plan was foolish. He also believed Sarah was too young and that the pregnancy would destroy Daniel’s opportunities.
“I told him if he walked out, he shouldn’t come back,” Mack said.
Eli’s face became solemn.
“Did you mean it?”
“No.”
“Then why did you say it?”
“Because I wanted him to be afraid of losing me.”
“Were you afraid of losing him?”
Mack looked toward Daniel’s photograph.
“Yes.”
Eli pulled the blanket higher.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No,” Mack said. “It doesn’t.”
The next morning, Mack drove Eli to school.
Whispers followed them through the hallway.
Grant had spoken to reporters again. Online articles described Mack as the president of an outlaw motorcycle gang attempting to seize a child’s inheritance.
Parents stared.
One woman pulled her daughter away from Eli.
Mack felt Eli shrink beside him.
Then his teacher, Ms. Avery, stepped into the hallway.
She hugged Eli carefully.
“We’ve missed you.”
Grant had told the school Eli was receiving private instruction after behavioral problems.
Ms. Avery knew nothing about the arrangement.
She led Mack into her classroom and opened a locked drawer.
Inside were copies of three reports she had made to county authorities.
Eli had arrived at school hungry twice. He had fallen asleep during lessons. He had once begged not to be sent home.
Each report had been marked reviewed and closed.
“Who closed them?” Mack asked.
“The family services liaison.”
The name on the paperwork was Patricia Harper.
Grant’s older sister.
Mack photographed every page.
As he was leaving, Ms. Avery stopped him.
“There’s something else.”
Two months earlier, Eli had written a story for class about a boy locked inside a basement while his mother cried upstairs.
Ms. Avery had contacted Grant.
Grant claimed Eli had an overactive imagination.
The next day, Eli stopped coming to school.
Mack read the final sentence of the story.
The boy knew a dragon would find him someday, but he was afraid the dragon had forgotten his name.
Mack folded the paper carefully.
May you like
The authorities had not failed to see Eli.
Someone had made sure they looked away.
