PART 14 – Natalie Finally Called Me Without Her Husband Beside Her, and Her First Question Revealed What She Had Really Been Thinking

The next morning, Natalie called.

I recognized her number immediately.

For a moment, I considered ignoring it.

But I answered.

"Hello."

She sounded nervous.

"Nicole, can we talk?"

I looked at the clock.

Leo was eating breakfast.

"About what?"

There was a pause.

"Everything."

I waited.

She continued.

"Mom says you aren't speaking to her."

"I'm speaking to David about the property."

"That's not what I mean."

I didn't answer.

Natalie sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us you bought the house?"

I looked at my coffee.

That question had become familiar.

Nobody seemed interested in why I had bought it.

Nobody seemed interested in what had happened four years earlier.

They only wanted to know why I hadn't announced it.

"I didn't think I needed to."

"But we're family."

I almost repeated what I had told my father.

Instead, I asked her something.

"Why did you want my bedroom?"

She went quiet.

"What?"

"You were measuring it that night."

She didn't answer immediately.

Then she said that she and Terrence had been discussing whether they could spend more time at our parents' house.

I listened.

She explained that their apartment was becoming inconvenient.

She mentioned that the room upstairs would have been useful.

I let her finish.

Then I asked whether she had known our parents were planning to send us away.

"No."

I believed that she hadn't arranged the entire confrontation.

But she had watched it happen.

She had stood beside Patricia.

She had smiled.

She hadn't tried to stop Richard.

"Why didn't you say anything when Dad told us to leave?"

Natalie became defensive.

"Nicole, everyone was upset."

"Leo was crying."

"I know."

"He was four years old."

"I know that, too."

Her voice became softer.

I waited for her to say something else.

Instead, she returned to the house.

"Are you really going to make Mom and Dad leave?"

I closed my eyes.

There it was.

The question she had wanted to ask all along.

"I haven't told David to ignore the agreement or the law. He's handling the matter properly."

"But they're our parents."

I looked toward Leo.

He was carefully cutting his toast into smaller pieces.

"He's my son."

Natalie didn't respond.

I ended the call a little later.

I didn't feel victorious.

I felt disappointed.

I had hoped that, at least once, my sister might call because she wanted to know how her nephew was doing.

Instead, she had called because she was worried about a bedroom.

Click here to continue reading: PART 15: David Explained Why My Father’s Signature Mattered, and I Finally Understood How Much My Parents Had Chosen Not to Read