Secret Brother by V.C. Andrews

From the way Uncle Bobby wasdressed, I knew he was minutes away from leaving. “Going?”
    â€œYes, but I’ll be calling you and writing to you. I’ll send you a playbill from the show I’m in now. You know what that is, right? I mean, it’s not really a bill, it’s—”
    â€œI know what it is,” I said, smiling. It felt good to smile. I knew it was part of what would bring me back, even though a bigger part of me wanted never to come back. That part wanted to stay with Willie.
    â€œGood. So . . . you’ll return to school on Monday?”
    â€œI guess so. My friend Lila has been helping me keep up with the classwork.”
    â€œBest thing you can do, although I know it won’t be easy, maybe not for a long, long time. Whenever I saw you two together, you were more like a mother to him than an older sister.” He paused and shook his head. “Of course, you would be, having lost your mother, but other girls might have withdrawn completely into themselves. You’re a great kid, Clara Sue.”
    I nodded. I knew Uncle Bobby meant it all as a nice thing to say and not to get me crying again. I could see, however, that he had something else on his mind. He had the look of someone debating with himself whether he should speak. He looked away and pressed his lips in and out.
    â€œHow’s Grandpa?” I asked, as a way to help get him to talk. “I didn’t see him this morning.”
    â€œHe’s Grandpa,” he said, smiling. “He won’t show it, but I know he’s struggling. You have to wonderhow I could be his son. There I was when I was your age, bawling like a baby at the sight of a dead butterfly. It still makes my eyes tear to see beautiful things die. Your grandfather is just one of those guys who cry on the inside and not on the outside. He’s also one of those guys who use anger to overcome sorrow.”
    â€œGetting his revenge,” I said, nodding.
    â€œRight.”
    â€œHas he said any more about the poisoned boy?” I could sense that this was really what he was holding back.
    He nodded. “Thing is, he received a report from the private detective concerning him.”
    â€œHe’s going home?” I asked quickly, hoping this was the end of it.
    â€œNo. The detective has apparently run into a dead end.”
    â€œWhat’s that mean?”
    â€œMy father’s exact words were ‘Whoever the man was, he had dropped the boy off like a bag of plague and then hightailed it into the shadows like a ghost.’ There wasn’t even a decent description of him. He wore some kind of hat and kept his collar up. His height and all that were too vague to draw a picture. Not much to go by. The boy had nothing on him that would identify him. Basically, my father’s given up on the private detective for now. Of course, the police are still involved.”
    â€œBut he’s still visiting him every day, isn’t he? That’s probably why he leaves so early.”
    Uncle Bobby nodded.
    I thought about it. “Isn’t there some kind of child protection service that takes over?” I didn’t want to tell him that I had asked Lila to ask her father about it. Her father was a corporate attorney for a company that had something to do with supplying the Navy with things, but I thought an attorney was an attorney and should know something about other legal things. He didn’t know all that much, but he had mentioned a government agency.
    â€œThat’s just it. Dad doesn’t want this little boy to get ‘lost in the system,’ as he puts it. I waited to see if he would tell me that my mother had whispered in his ear, just what he had told you, but he didn’t mention it. Shows how he trusts you, cares about what you think, more than he does me.”
    â€œWell, what’s he going to do now?”
    â€œHe’s still looking after the boy’s medical