Chapter 8 - THE OUTSIDE WORLD BLEEDS IN
Six months into their confinement, the consequences of their past lives finally caught up. Ocampo arrived at the perimeter gate with grim news. Robert’s auto business had officially been seized by the IRS. Claudia’s church board had gone public with her embezzlement, stripping her of her title and publicly shaming her. Daniel’s creditors had put a bounty on him. They had lost everything they possessed outside the property line.
“You can walk away,” Ocampo told them through the iron gate. “You can forfeit the trust, run, and try to hide.”
Robert looked at his brother and sister. They were filthy, wearing patched clothes, eating rice and beans, and entirely stripped of their pride. But as Robert looked at them, he didn't see the arrogant monsters they used to be. He saw the siblings he used to play with in this very yard.
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“We aren’t leaving,” Robert said, his voice carrying a quiet, unshakeable strength he had never possessed before. “We finish the year. We fix the house. We face whatever is coming together.”
They spent the winter rebuilding. Robert used his mechanical skills to rewire the house and fix the plumbing. Daniel used his physical strength to repair the roof and the porch. Claudia turned the overgrown, dead yard back into the vibrant garden their mother once loved. They talked. They fought. They forgave. They learned how to be a family because it was the only thing they had left to survive.
