Chapter 7 — Kneeling back down at the table, Marcus presents his discovery to Vanessa
Marcus walked back across the room from the side desk.
The wooden floorboards creaked softly beneath his shoes.
In his hand, he carried the newly torn test paper alongside the fragments of the original school notices.
Vanessa stood by the dining room table with her arms crossed over her chest.
Her expression remained tight and frustrated.
She looked down at the weeping child standing near the edge of the chair.
Penny kept her face hidden behind her hands.
Her small shoulders shook with quiet, miserable sobs.
Marcus stopped beside the wooden table and set the papers down flat on the surface.
He lined up the jagged edge of the fresh test paper directly against the torn remnants of the official school form.
The patterns of the rips matched each other with absolute precision.
Vanessa glanced down at the papers on the wood.
Her eyes flicked from the jagged edges up to Marcus’s face.
The anger in her eyes faltered for a fraction of a second.
It was replaced by a sudden, heavy wave of confusion.
“What is that?” Vanessa asked, her voice dropping from its sharp, accusing tone.
Marcus pointed down at the matching tears side by side.
“Look at the fibers,” Marcus said calmly.
“They didn’t get ripped by hands.”
Vanessa stared at the alignment of the paper fragments.
She reached out slowly, her fingertips brushing against the desk surface.
She touched the edge of the test sheet Marcus had just ruined.
The realization began to settle heavily into the silence of the room.
Vanessa slowly turned her head away from the table.
She looked down at Penny, who was still crying softly into her blue cardigan.
Vanessa opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat.
She looked back up at Marcus, waiting for him to explain what he had found by the desk.