Chapter 18 - What Help Actually Looks Like
I almost followed Maya.
Sophie stopped me.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“Ask her.”
“Ask her what?”
“What help she wants.”
It was embarrassingly obvious.
I found Maya on the back steps with Winston's head in her lap. The dog adored her because she slipped him toast when she thought I was not looking.
I sat beside her.
For once, I did not start with a plan.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She looked suspicious. “You already asked that.”
“No. I asked while trying to guess the answer. I'm asking for real now.”
She scratched behind Winston's ear.
“I want to finish school.”
“Okay.”
“I want people to stop treating housing like a prize you earn by being impressive.”
“Okay.”
“I want a lawyer who represents me, not you.”
That stung, which probably meant it was important.
“Okay.”
“I want my record cleared publicly.”
“It will be.”
“And I want the scholarship program fixed for kids who aren't good at math and don't have dead rich women leaving videos for them.”
I exhaled slowly.
“Okay.”
She glanced at me. “You say okay a lot when you're uncomfortable.”
“I'm practicing.”
That earned a small smile.
But the most important meeting happened without cameras.
Maya sat across from an independent youth advocate, a housing specialist, and a lawyer she chose herself.
Because she was seventeen and had no safe parent to return to, they built a legal plan around her needs.
She chose to remain in our home temporarily while finishing the semester.
Not as my project.
Not as Sophie's replacement sister.
As Maya.
We signed house rules together.
She insisted on paying something once she found part-time work.
Mrs. Alvarez charged her one dollar a month and put every dollar in a jar labeled RENT.
Sophie decorated the jar with stars.
One Friday, a certified letter arrived from Lakeview.
Maya opened it at the kitchen table.
Her disciplinary record had been fully erased.
Her scholarship was restored.
And the school offered her immediate reinstatement.
She read the letter twice.
Then she tore it in half.
I stared.
Sophie gasped.
May you like
Maya smiled.
“I never said I wanted to go back.”
