I sank onto the tile across from him because my legs would not hold me anymore.
“Your mother showed me the brochure. She said you both were adults, and Rosie was becoming a burden nobody in the family would carry.”
“I saw where they planned to send her.”
“That’s not true. She’s not a burden, and I would’ve looked after her IF she needed me to.”
“They never planned to tell you.” His voice was so quiet I had to lean forward. “Your mother said, ‘Cathy deserves a life of her own. We won’t chain her to Rosie.’”
“She said that?”
“She offered me a settlement to marry Rosie. Legal guardianship. I didn’t sign for any of that — I signed because I love her. Because I want her to have the life she deserves.”
I looked down at the paper crushed against my chest.
There was one thing I couldn’t get over.
“They never planned to tell you.”
My own parents had done this.
“And Rosie knew…” I said.
Ben nodded.
“I told her a year in. I couldn’t lie to her anymore. She cried. Then she laughed. Then she said she wanted to keep me anyway.”
He smiled through his tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And Rosie knew
