The time Grandpa I had already accepted my place in the family

“You don’t have to stay.”

I was told that our parents died when I was two years old, strapped into my car seat. A truck ran a red light, causing the accident. I lived. Our parents didn’t.

That was enough for them.

My siblings never said it outright, but it hung in the air. In the way they looked at me.

And sometimes… they did say it.