Chapter 4: Ten Faces at the Table

Everyone had advice after Robert left, and almost all of it sounded sensible to people who had never been loved by ten frightened children at once… Continue Reading ⬇️

My mother called first.

“Margaret, listen to me. Let the system take the children.”

I looked toward the staircase where they were sleeping.

“They’re upstairs, Mama.”

“They are not your responsibility.”

“I can’t send them away.”

She was not alone. My aunt said I was too young. My cousins said someone else could raise them. Robert’s relatives said I should not throw my life away.

I listened.

Then I looked at ten children sitting around my kitchen table, waiting to see whether the second parent they trusted would disappear too.

At the county office, a woman with kind eyes asked me if I was certain.

“Ten children is an enormous responsibility.”

“I know.”

“It will take years.”

“I know.”

“There is no shame in stepping away.”

I thought about Sophie calling me Mama.

“I can’t walk away from that.”

I signed the papers with a shaking hand. Continue Reading ⬇️