The pounding started at seven-thirty the next morning after I had slept maybe forty minutes……
PART 2:
The pounding started at seven-thirty the next morning after I had slept maybe forty minutes. Rose had spent the night under supervision in a secure airport waiting area while Darius traveled toward her. The messages said she was still safe, Darius had landed at his first connection, and she loved me. Only then did I get up and open the door.
Mom stood there with Dad and Kendra behind her, while two hotel employees waited beside a luggage cart. “You canceled our rooms?” Mom demanded, and I said yes. She told me to fix it. I said, “No.”
I told them why: they had abandoned Rose in another country. Mom insisted Rose was eighteen and an adult, but when I asked whether Max being almost seventeen meant the same thing, she said that was different and could not explain why. Kendra accused me of punishing her children, so I repeated her own words: “You’re adults. You can handle yourselves.” When Mom said they had children with them, I looked past her at Max and Savannah and answered, “So did I.”
Kendra called me vindictive and said Max had only made a stupid joke. I told her stealing Rose’s passport, watching her panic, and leaving her behind stopped being a prank the moment she could not board. Dad finally admitted he could have stayed with Rose. Then Mom said the part that made everything clear: they would have lost money by missing the flight.
Dad said they thought airport staff would help her, and I told him they had expected strangers to do what her family refused to do. Then Kendra showed me the airline cancellation notice and demanded to know why I had canceled their return flights too. I told her they could buy new tickets. When she protested that their situation was different because they were all together, I answered, “You’re right. It’s easier,” and closed the door.
The moment the lock clicked, my knees nearly gave out. I had expected anger to make me feel powerful, but instead I felt exhausted. Then Darius called and said, “I’m with her.” I slid down against the door and started crying when Rose came on the phone.
Rose sounded steadier, and she even joked that Darius had brought her actual coffee. I told them the passport was already being sent through the secure courier process I had arranged. Then Rose told me Grandma had said she always made everything about herself, and I reminded her she had been right to be scared and right to ask questions. She cried quietly, and I stayed on the phone until she stopped.
After we hung up, a folded paper slid under the door. For one second, I expected an apology, but it was a hotel receipt with Kendra’s note at the bottom: YOU OWE US FOR THE NEW ROOMS. I sent back, “No, I don’t.” She replied that Mom and Dad were devastated by what I was doing.
I answered, “Rose was devastated by what you did.” No reply came. For the first time since the family arrived, silence felt like peace.