For 4 years, I picked up my sister’s kids from school for free. One day I was 37 minutes late, and she screamed at me in front of them: “Not with my children!” Then she shoved me out of her house. I stopped picking them up. 11 days later, the school called me. Then my sister called 6 times. I turned my phone face down.

“Caleb told me you usually sit over here.”

Dan looked toward the field.

“He’s been asking about you.”

My throat tightened.

Then Dan said something unexpected.

“I also wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything you’ve done after school these past four years.”

I shrugged.

“I love those kids.”

“I know. And I appreciate it. I pay my share, but you’ve been worth every penny.”

I went still.

“Your share of what?”

He looked confused.

“The childcare.”

I stared at him.

“Dan, what childcare payments?”

He frowned.

“Nicole pays you every month. It’s listed in our support calculations. I contribute $570 now. It used to be $390 before Ruby started school.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

Dan had been paying his portion of a childcare expense that didn’t exist.

For years.

I looked toward Caleb running across the soccer field.

Nearly twenty-five thousand dollars.