Chapter 3 - Samuel Bennett
The man who entered was sixty-one.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
No weapon in his hands.
Behind him stood:
A Franklin County sheriff’s deputy.
A woman carrying a leather portfolio.
And another man I recognized vaguely from old family photographs.
Mom sat down.
Gary stepped backward.
The stranger looked at me first.
Then Ethan.
Then the belt.
He said:
“My name is Samuel Bennett.”
That name I knew.
Barely.
My father’s older brother.
Our uncle.
I had not seen him since Dad’s funeral almost four years earlier.
Samuel looked at Gary.
“Step away from them.”
Gary laughed nervously.
“You don’t live here.”
“No.”
“You have no authority here.”
The deputy answered for him.
“He doesn’t need any to ask you to move away from the minors while we determine what happened.”
Gary looked toward Mom.
“Rachel.”
May you like
My mother did not defend him.
That was the first moment I understood she had known Samuel was coming.
