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"Dawn doesn't go snooping in anyone's things," Jimmy said sharply; stepping up beside me.
"That's not what's important here, Fern," I said. "It's what's in this magazine, what you read and memorized and pretended had happened to you."
"I didn't," she cried, real tears emerging.
"You did! You did!" I insisted, slapping the magazine over my open palm. It sounded like a gunshot, and her sobbing stopped instantly. "We're not going to pretend anymore, and you're going to tell the truth once and for all. And I warn you, Fern: If you lie to us just once—just once, mind you—we'll ship you out of here. If the Osbornes don't want you, you'll go to a home for wayward girls."
I don't know where I garnered the strength and coldness to pronounce these words, but as I spoke them I saw flashes of Grandmother Cut
ler before me, her face stern, her shoulders hoisted, her fury fierce.
Fern cowered.
"I . . . I hated it there," she said.
"All you had to do was tell us the truth," Jimmy said.
"I knew you couldn't get me back, because I was legally theirs."
"So you made it all up, copied the ideas from this story?" I demanded. I had to have her confess it. She hesitated and then nodded. "What?" I said.
"I made it up. But please, please don't send me back to them. Clayton is cruel, he really is mean, and he doesn't love me, and Leslie doesn't help. He treats her like a child, too," she claimed.
"In that shoe box in your closet there is a lot of money," I said, nodding toward it. "How did you get it? All of it?"
"I stole it," she muttered.
"What?" Jimmy asked, wanting her to speak louder and own up to her crimes.
"I stole it," she shouted through her tears. "Some of it from Leslie and Clayton, and some of it from the front desk," she admitted.
"Why would you steal from us?" Jimmy asked. "We never denied you anything you needed or wanted."
"I thought you might ask me to leave someday, and I was going to run away if you did, so I needed money."
"You did a terrible thing, Fern," I said. "Not just the stealing of the money, but the attempt to steal our love and concern for you. You tried to win our love by turning us against the Osbornes. No matter what life was like with them, it was wrong to make such accusations about him."
The tears grew heavier, thicker down Fern's cheeks.
"Are you sending me back?" she asked, looking from me to Jimmy.
"That's up to Dawn," Jimmy said firmly. Fern's eyes widened, and then she looked at me, expecting the worst.
"We should," I began. "You said you came home with us because you wanted to be with a family where there was love in the home, but you have tried in all sorts of ways to hurt us." She looked down. "Jimmy and I love each other as much as two people can love each other in this world, and nothing can change that," I said. "But that doesn't mean we can't love other people very much, too. It's because we have such love for each other that we understand how important it is.
"You can't be selfish if you want people to love you, Fern. But more important," I said, "you can't love anyone if you love yourself more. Do you understand?"
She nodded, but I didn't think she understood nor wanted to just yet. She still had defiance in her eyes.
"Do I have to go back?" she repeated.
"No," I replied. "You can still stay with us."
She looked up, surprised.
"Because we want you to stay, we want you to be a better person, we want to love you and have you love us. But that will happen only if you don't lie and cheat and steal. It will happen only if you are honest and really care."
"You will be on probation here with us," Jimmy said sternly. "You understand that?"
