Uncle Ray kept looking at Travis for a few seconds after he said it.
Not angry. Honestly worse than angry.
Just this tired look like something finally clicked into place for him.
One of my cousins tried laughing to break the tension. “Come on, Travis didn’t mean it like that.”
Travis shrugged and took another drink. “I’m just saying nobody stole anything. We used the money for family.”
Uncle Ray nodded slowly.
“Family,” he repeated.
Then he looked down at the picnic table and rubbed his thumb across one of the scratches in the wood for a second before saying, “You sold my truck two weeks after I signed it over.”
Nobody answered.
“You sold my father’s tools before I could even walk without a brace.”
Ashley suddenly got real interested in fixing her napkin in her lap.
Travis sighed loud like HE was the victim here. “Ray, you weren’t using any of it.”
That’s when Uncle Ray finally looked back up.
“You know what the funny part is?” he said. “I actually believed you boys when you said you were protecting me.”
Dead silence after that.
Even the kids running around behind us got quiet because all the adults stopped talking at once.
Then Uncle Ray reached into the folder beside his chair and pulled out a few papers folded in half.
“I talked to a lawyer last month.”
Travis’s face changed immediately.
Uncle Ray slid the papers across the table toward him.
Turns out when my cousins sold the truck, they’d signed paperwork pretending they had permanent ownership.
Only Uncle Ray never actually transferred it correctly.
The lawyer called it fraud.
Travis stared at the papers for maybe three seconds before pushing his chair back.
And Uncle Ray said the coldest thing I’ve ever heard him say in my life.
“Don’t leave yet. Sheriff Collins is still eating over by the grills.”