Instead I found the old certificate, which was actually a copy ordered later, so my mother could finish the paperwork to get remarried.

She looked horrified at the sight of it. Like it was a snake that might bite her. I’m sure she wished she’d thrown it away. At the time, I wished she had, too.

Now I don’t regret that I found it. I only regret how I reacted.

Some things can’t be taken back.

I’ve taken too long to continue, lost in thought. Riona reaches out and touches my arm, saying, “Are you alright?”

I clear my throat. “Yes. Of course. Where was I? Oh, right . . . My mother wanted Waya to stay with her. She was so scared. But he passed her over to his sisters, and they drove back over the border to Cherokee land, not stopping once. Waya stayed with my uncles.

“The next bit was the tricky part. They had to make sure that everyone in Silver Run knew that my mother had run off, and that Ellis was looking for her. But they couldn’t let him actually get close to finding her.

“So Waya, Uncle Abott and Uncle Earl, and some of my mother’s younger siblings kept watch everywhere they could. It was easier than they hoped, because Ellis was in a fucking rage. He went to the sheriff and reported my mother as kidnapped. He went to the bar where she used to work. He went to her old high school and her friends’ houses. My grandparents’ house, too.

“He screamed at them and threatened them. Even smashed a couple windows in their house. Beat my grandfather within an inch of his life, though he was probably too high to notice. Then Ellis grabbed one of the youngest siblings—my aunt Kelly. She was only four at the time. He grabbed her and acted like he was going to drag her out of the house. Maybe he thought he’d keep her hostage or something, to force my mother to come back.”

“Jesus,” Riona whispers.

“Well, Uncle Abott came running into the house with his junior league baseball bat and he said, ‘Let go of her or I’ll crack your fuckin’ skull.’ Ellis let go of Aunt Kelly and left.

“They followed him around for three days. At one point he came face-to-face with my auntie Lane as she was tailing him outside a gas station, but he just looked right through her and kept going. It was ironic, because Ellis had given her a skateboard as a gift when he was pursuing my mother. But he didn’t even recognize her face. Maybe he was just too enraged to notice.

“Anyway, on the fourth day, some people in town were spreading the rumor that my mother had been seen on Cherokee land. Ellis hadn’t heard it yet as far as my uncles knew, but they also knew it was only a matter of time until he did.

“So they put a slow leak in the tires of his car while he was eating at the bar where my mother used to work. He kept going back there to threaten the owners and harass the other customers. He bribed a few, too. It didn’t work—if anybody knew where my mother was, they didn’t tell him.