My father murmured something I could not quite hear.
Then my mother turned toward the camera without noticing it and smiled the kind of smile she wore when she believed a situation had already been handled.
I downloaded the clip.
Then I opened my email.
That was when I found the U-Haul confirmation.
It had been forwarded to an old family email account I still had access to because no one had ever bothered to change the password. A fifteen-foot truck had been reserved under Gerald Seward’s name. Pickup date: March eighth. Drop-off location: my address in Aurora, Colorado.
They were not asking.
They were not even pretending to ask.
They were just taking.
I did not sleep that night.
Instead, I sat in my hotel room with my laptop open and documented everything.
The Ring app let me download footage directly to my device. I saved every clip from March third. Forty-seven minutes of my parents walking through my home like prospective buyers. Then I saved the U-Haul confirmation. Reservation number, pickup location, drop-off address, my father’s name, his credit card on file.
