I stared at Mom.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, the only sound in the private bank room was the faint mechanical hum of the ventilation system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean Victor wasn\u2019t Grandma\u2019s only son?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom did not answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Her fingers moved over the edge of the metal box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was another baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She looked down at Grandma\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy older brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much older?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was his name?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her lips trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat back.<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n
That made the revelation stranger.<\/p>\n
A whole person could exist inside a family history and leave no visible outline.<\/p>\n
No photographs on Grandma\u2019s shelves.<\/p>\n
No stories.<\/p>\n
No accidental references.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom wiped her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew he existed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom looked toward the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he knew eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was younger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow old was Thomas when he died?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSixteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The number chilled me.<\/p>\n
Mom had been eleven.<\/p>\n
Grandma had lost a teenage son.<\/p>\n
I looked at the box again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom picked up one of the photographs.<\/p>\n
It showed three children near a lake.<\/p>\n
A boy in his mid-teens stood behind a younger girl and a small boy.<\/p>\n
The girl was unmistakably Mom.<\/p>\n
The little boy was probably Victor.<\/p>\n
The teenager had Grandma\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
Mom touched his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took the photo carefully.<\/p>\n
He looked ordinary.<\/p>\n
That was what hurt.<\/p>\n
Not ghostly.<\/p>\n
Not tragic.<\/p>\n
Just a boy squinting at sunlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy have I never seen this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma put everything away after he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s eyes remained on the photo.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said it was an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he driving?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandpa.\u201d<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
Mom nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were coming home from somewhere late at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas Grandpa hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBroken ribs. His shoulder. Thomas died before the ambulance arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Grandma blamed Grandpa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen she blamed herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She took a shaky breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas had asked to stay out with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story came slowly.<\/p>\n
Grandma said no.<\/p>\n
Thomas argued.<\/p>\n
Grandpa sided with him.<\/p>\n
Eventually Grandma gave in on the condition that Grandpa pick him up at a specific time.<\/p>\n
Rain began after dark.<\/p>\n
Thomas called and asked to stay overnight at his friend\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Grandma refused.<\/p>\n
She insisted Grandpa bring him home.<\/p>\n
The road was slick.<\/p>\n
A truck crossed the center line.<\/p>\n
There was no evidence Grandpa caused the crash.<\/p>\n
But Grandma never forgave herself for insisting they drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe believed if she had just let him stay,\u201d Mom whispered, \u201che would have lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n
The pattern suddenly widened again.<\/p>\n
Grandma\u2019s obsession with preventing the wrong decision.<\/p>\n
Her trusts.<\/p>\n
Her conditions.<\/p>\n
Her insistence on planning around future mistakes.<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s instinct to override everybody if she believed disaster was possible.<\/p>\n
They both came from a house shaped by a death that nobody could reverse.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she talk about him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat seems impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom gave a sad laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen what our family can do with silence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair.<\/p>\n
I picked up Grandma\u2019s letter again.<\/p>\n
The next paragraphs explained what Mom had only partially known.<\/p>\n
After Thomas died, Grandma became controlling.<\/p>\n
She monitored Mom constantly.<\/p>\n
Where she went.<\/p>\n
Who she saw.<\/p>\n
What time she returned.<\/p>\n
She made rules stricter whenever fear increased.<\/p>\n
Grandpa responded differently.<\/p>\n
He withdrew.<\/p>\n
He stopped challenging her.<\/p>\n
Victor, still a child, learned to disappear into quiet places.<\/p>\n
Mom learned to fight for autonomy in secret.<\/p>\n
I stopped reading.<\/p>\n
The family pattern was almost embarrassingly clear.<\/p>\n
Grandma controlled.<\/p>\n
Grandpa withdrew.<\/p>\n
Mom rebelled and hid.<\/p>\n
Victor disappeared.<\/p>\n
Years later, Dad withdrew.<\/p>\n
Mom controlled.<\/p>\n
Renee received protection.<\/p>\n
I disappeared into compliance.<\/p>\n
No one had invented anything.<\/p>\n
We had rehearsed it.<\/p>\n
Mom looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
I slid the letter toward her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should read it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her eyes moved across the page.<\/p>\n
I watched her face change.<\/p>\n
Anger first.<\/p>\n
Then pain.<\/p>\n
Then something softer.<\/p>\n
Grandma admitted she had treated control as prevention after Thomas died.<\/p>\n
She had convinced herself that if she predicted enough dangers and imposed enough rules, she could stop catastrophe.<\/p>\n
When Mom resisted, Grandma interpreted resistance as evidence that more control was needed.<\/p>\n
The harder Mom fought, the tighter Grandma held.<\/p>\n
The tighter Grandma held, the more Mom learned to lie.<\/p>\n
A system.<\/p>\n
A terrible one.<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s tears fell onto the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course she waited until she was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could not argue.<\/p>\n
The letter did.<\/p>\n
Grandma apologized.<\/p>\n
Not vaguely.<\/p>\n
Specifically.<\/p>\n
She apologized for reading Mom\u2019s diary.<\/p>\n
For withholding car keys.<\/p>\n
For opening her mail.<\/p>\n
For calling employers.<\/p>\n
For using money to control which college she attended.<\/p>\n
For threatening to cut her off if she moved in with Dad before marriage.<\/p>\n
Mom covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
I had never heard any of this.<\/p>\n
The woman described in the letter sounded familiar.<\/p>\n
Not because I remembered Grandma behaving that way toward me.<\/p>\n
Because pieces of her existed inside Mom.<\/p>\n
Mom read faster.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed.<\/p>\n
I leaned closer.<\/p>\n
Grandma had written about the first time she realized the damage had moved forward.<\/p>\n
It was the summer Renee turned twelve.<\/p>\n
Grandma witnessed Mom take money from my birthday envelope and give it to Renee to replace something Renee had lost.<\/p>\n
I remembered.<\/p>\n
Barely.<\/p>\n
A pink envelope.<\/p>\n
Forty dollars.<\/p>\n
Mom telling me she would replace it later.<\/p>\n
She never did.<\/p>\n
At the time it had seemed trivial.<\/p>\n
Grandma had apparently seen more.<\/p>\n
She wrote that Mom used the same sentence Grandma once used with her.<\/p>\n
Your sister needs it more right now.<\/p>\n
Mom shut her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh God.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are moments when a family truth becomes visible not because someone reveals something enormous, but because a tiny forgotten incident suddenly shows the entire design.<\/p>\n
Forty dollars.<\/p>\n
A birthday envelope.<\/p>\n
It had been enough for Grandma to recognize herself in her daughter.<\/p>\n
I looked at Mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started changing the estate after that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
We did.<\/p>\n
Not immediately.<\/p>\n
But that incident stayed with Grandma.<\/p>\n
As I grew older, she watched the pattern continue.<\/p>\n
She tried to intervene indirectly.<\/p>\n
Gifts placed in separate accounts.<\/p>\n
Money assigned to specific purposes.<\/p>\n
The beach property protected.<\/p>\n
Letters prepared.<\/p>\n
More control used to counter control.<\/p>\n
She admitted the contradiction.<\/p>\n
I tried to repair what I taught you by using the same tool that damaged you.<\/p>\n
Mom read that sentence aloud.<\/p>\n
Then she laughed through tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe couldn\u2019t just apologize. She had to design an entire legal mechanism around the apology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite everything, I laughed.<\/p>\n
So did Mom.<\/p>\n
The sound startled both of us.<\/p>\n
For a few seconds we were not adversaries.<\/p>\n
We were two people discovering that Grandma had somehow managed to over-engineer remorse.<\/p>\n
Then Mom opened the velvet jewelry box.<\/p>\n
Inside lay a gold locket.<\/p>\n
She gasped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
She lifted it carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was Thomas\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA locket?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave it to Grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n
She opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside was a tiny photograph of Thomas on one side.<\/p>\n
On the other, a folded fragment of paper.<\/p>\n
Mom removed it with trembling fingers.<\/p>\n
The handwriting belonged to a teenage boy.<\/p>\n
Sorry I yelled. Love you, Mom. See you tonight.<\/p>\n
Mom stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
I understood immediately.<\/p>\n
Thomas had written it before the accident.<\/p>\n
Grandma kept it for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n
Mom pressed the paper to her lips.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe showed me this once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night before my wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me never to leave an argument unfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
The irony cut through me.<\/p>\n
Mom had spent eleven years leaving the biggest argument unfinished.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that was why Grandma saved the note for her.<\/p>\n
Not accusation.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
Mom put it down carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her name appeared on it alone.<\/p>\n
MARGARET.<\/p>\n
She stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to open it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I mean I can\u2019t open it with you here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The honesty stung for half a second.<\/p>\n
Then I understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
She looked surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re leaving?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s yours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we came together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now you want privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom stared at me.<\/p>\n
The old version of us would have made that complicated.<\/p>\n
She would have felt guilty asking.<\/p>\n
I would have felt rejected agreeing.<\/p>\n
Today, I opened the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll wait in the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her eyes filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stepped outside.<\/p>\n
The bank hallway was empty.<\/p>\n
I sat in one of the upholstered chairs near the vault entrance.<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
Renee.<\/p>\n
Hotel found. Dad is helping us check in. Kids think this is an adventure somehow.<\/p>\n
I smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
Then another message.<\/p>\n
How bad is the box?<\/p>\n
I typed back.<\/p>\n
Complicated. Mostly about Mom. Grandma apologized for things I never knew happened.<\/p>\n
Renee replied almost immediately.<\/p>\n
Did Mom read it?<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
Three dots appeared.<\/p>\n
Then disappeared.<\/p>\n
Finally:<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
I leaned back.<\/p>\n
That one word carried years.<\/p>\n
About twenty minutes later, the door opened.<\/p>\n
Mom stepped out holding the locket.<\/p>\n
Her face was swollen from crying.<\/p>\n
She looked older.<\/p>\n
Not weaker.<\/p>\n
Just less arranged.<\/p>\n
\u201cReady?\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want to do with the box?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTake the letters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ones addressed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the rest?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something for Renee.\u201d<\/p>\n
We returned together.<\/p>\n
One envelope carried Renee\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Another was addressed to Victor.<\/p>\n
A smaller one had Dad\u2019s.<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarrow said there was nothing directly for Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom turned it over.<\/p>\n
The envelope was sealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
We collected everything.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the box lay a thin folder.<\/p>\n
No name.<\/p>\n
Inside were legal documents.<\/p>\n
I recognized the beach property address immediately.<\/p>\n
Mom stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat now?\u201d<\/p>\n
I scanned the first page.<\/p>\n
It was not another deed.<\/p>\n
It was an appraisal.<\/p>\n
Dated three months before Grandma died.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
And another.<\/p>\n
The property had been valued several times.<\/p>\n
I looked at the numbers.<\/p>\n
Each was far lower than the price I had paid Victor\u2019s company.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor sold me this house at market value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n
I flipped to the final page.<\/p>\n
Grandma had left instructions concerning the eventual transfer.<\/p>\n
The beneficiary was not supposed to pay market value.<\/p>\n
The sale price was meant to be nominal.<\/p>\n
One dollar plus documented holding costs.<\/p>\n
I stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
Mom read over my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew.<\/p>\n
But I wanted to be wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means Victor wasn\u2019t supposed to sell me the house for what I paid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much did you pay?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough that I used most of my savings and took a mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The betrayal hit differently.<\/p>\n
Victor had spent all morning presenting himself as the custodian of Grandma\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n
He had admitted mistakes.<\/p>\n
Admitted pride.<\/p>\n
Admitted silence.<\/p>\n
But this was not passive.<\/p>\n
If the document meant what it appeared to mean, he had made hundreds of thousands of dollars from a property Grandma intended me to receive almost for free.<\/p>\n
I took a photograph of the page and sent it to Elaine.<\/p>\n
She called before we reached the bank lobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not confront Victor yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I need the complete document.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPhotograph every page.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did.<\/p>\n
She was silent while reading.<\/p>\n
Then she swore softly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDana, this is serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow serious?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these instructions remained legally operative through the corporate holding arrangement, Victor may have violated the transfer terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hand went cold.<\/p>\n
Mom stared.<\/p>\n
Elaine continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to confirm what you paid, what his company spent maintaining the property, and whether later amendments exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the parking lot.<\/p>\n
Victor was sitting in his car.<\/p>\n
Waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould there be another document changing it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think there is?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor looked up as we approached the glass doors.<\/p>\n
He smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
Then he saw my face.<\/p>\n
The smile disappeared.<\/p>\n
Mom whispered beside me, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to protect him because he told the truth about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
Her voice remained quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he lied to you, find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The strange thing was that she sounded like Grandma.<\/p>\n
Not the controlling version.<\/p>\n
The better one.<\/p>\n
The one who had finally learned the difference between warning someone and deciding for them.<\/p>\n
Victor stepped out of his car.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did it go?\u201d<\/p>\n
I held up the folder.<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
He recognized it instantly.<\/p>\n
That was enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
He did not ask what I meant.<\/p>\n
Mom stared at her brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sold her the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor\u2019s face hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana, let me explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence was so familiar that Mom actually laughed.<\/p>\n
A painful, astonished laugh.<\/p>\n
I looked at Victor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
I held the folder between us.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst you tell me whether there is any later document that changed Grandma\u2019s instructions about the transfer price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor stared at me.<\/p>\n
Traffic moved behind him.<\/p>\n
A car horn sounded somewhere on the street.<\/p>\n
Finally he said, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you knew I wasn\u2019t supposed to pay market value.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom whispered, \u201cVictor.\u201d<\/p>\n
He closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stepped backward.<\/p>\n
Everything he had said about Mom that morning remained true.<\/p>\n
And yet here he was.<\/p>\n
Another person who had taken Grandma\u2019s intentions and rewritten them because he believed he had a reason.<\/p>\n
I felt suddenly exhausted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much did your company make from my purchase?\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor looked at the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave me the number.<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
Mom covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
It was more than the money taken from both mine and Renee\u2019s accounts combined.<\/p>\n
Nearly three times more.<\/p>\n
Victor had protected the house from Mom for eleven years.<\/p>\n
Then, when the moment came to give it to me, he had charged me for the privilege of receiving what Grandma already intended me to have.<\/p>\n
I stared at Mom. For several seconds, the only sound in the private bank room was the faint mechanical hum of the ventilation system. \u201cWhat do you mean Victor wasn\u2019t … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readmore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4449,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions\/4449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}