“NATALIE! I’M AT THE GAS STATION! THE TANK IS EMPTY AND THE CARD KEEPS GETTING DECLINED! WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
I looked at Evan. He was eating ice cream while watching kids race down another slide.
I typed five words.
“Ask your three empty seats.”
Then I put my phone away.
I expected Lauren to be furious.
I expected Mom to accuse me of being selfish.
I expected the usual speech about family helping family.
What I didn’t expect was Mom’s next voicemail.
Her voice wasn’t angry.
She sounded terrified.
“Natalie, call me immediately. You don’t understand what you’ve done.”
I stepped away from the cabana and called.
She answered instantly.
“Turn the card back on.”
“No.”
“Natalie, listen to me.”
“I’ve been listening to you for years, Mom.”
“Lauren doesn’t have enough money to fill the tank.”
“Then maybe she should use whatever money she saved by refusing to buy Evan a ticket.”
“This isn’t funny!”
“I’m not laughing.”
There was a long silence.
Then Mom said something that made my stomach tighten.
“If Lauren calls the police, don’t tell them anything about that van.”
I stopped walking.
“What?”
“Just reactivate the card. Please.”
“Why would Lauren call the police?”
“She’s upset.”
“Over gasoline?”
“Natalie—”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I heard Lauren yelling in the background.
Mom lowered her voice.
“Your father wanted this family to stay together.”
Hearing Dad’s name suddenly made my chest tighten.
“What does Dad have to do with a gas card?”
“Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
She hung up.
I stood beside a row of vending machines while the distant roar of waterslides filled the air.
Something was wrong.
Mom had spent my entire childhood rearranging everyone’s lives whenever Lauren got angry. She had never sounded frightened of her.
So why was she terrified now?
And why had she brought up Dad?
When I returned to the cabana, Evan was sitting beside Chloe, Lauren’s fifteen-year-old daughter.
“Aunt Natalie!”
I looked around. “Where’s your mom?”
“At the gas station, I think.”
“How did you get here?”
“We were already in the park. Mom and Grandma left to get food and gas. They told us to stay near the wave pool.”
My pulse quickened. “They left all three of you here?”
“Ben’s twelve. We were okay.”
That was another conversation for later.
Chloe looked down at Evan, then at me.
“Can I talk to you?”
We moved a few steps away.
“I wanted Evan to come this morning,” she said.
“I know.”
“No, I really did. I told Mom there was plenty of room.”
“I heard you.”
Chloe swallowed.
“She said you’d probably bring him yourself because you always have money.”
A bitter laugh slipped out of me. “Did she?”
Chloe nodded. “Grandma said you probably wouldn’t spend the money because you’re too careful.”
So my mother had known exactly how hurt Evan would be.
And she had still watched that van leave.
“Did your mom ever say why she didn’t want Evan there?”
Chloe hesitated.
“She said something about Grandpa.”
A cold feeling spread through my chest.
“What about Grandpa?”
“I don’t know everything. Mom and Grandma were arguing last night.”
“What did you hear?”
Chloe looked at the ground.
“Mom said she was tired of pretending everything belonged to Evan.”
I went completely still.
“Everything?”
“That’s what she said.”
Before I could ask more, Chloe received a text from Grandma telling them to meet at the front gate. But before she left, she turned around.
“Aunt Natalie?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t think Grandpa forgot about Evan.”
Then she hurried away.
