Three Little Words

Ashley learns that Mrs. Moss has been “arrested on twenty-five counts of felony child abuse and nine counts of felony child neglect” (248). Ashley is determined to get involved because she “need[s] to do something to help those kids” (250). Phil and Gay are reluctant, but Ashley insists because she does not “want this to blow over like the other investigations” (251).

Ashley gives evidence to the police and speaks to a reporter. After watching Erin Brockovich, she also insists on a “class-action [suit] for all of the kids who lived with the Mosses” (255). Lawyers file a lawsuit “on behalf of thirty-one Florida children” (257) although, because she has been adopted, Ashley is eventually excluded from the group and advised to file individual lawsuits.

Meanwhile, after the sleeping pill incident, Ashely feels that she has “broken through a wall—one I had carefully constructed over many years” (259) and can trust the Courters. She “finally notice[s] that they [are] always there: waking me up, tucking me in, ready to listen, checking whether I [need] anything” and resolves “to prove their faith [is] justified” (260).

Ashley encounters a number of new opportunities, including speaking events. On holiday in England, she asks if Gay knows J.K. Rowling and is disappointed that she does not. However, shortly after, she enters and wins an essay competition and gets to have breakfast with the Harry Potter author. She is even invited to a Christmas party at the White House where she meets Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Mrs. Moss pleads guilty to one count of child neglect and is given “[p]robation for only five years” (267). Ashley’s own lawsuit continues, however. From the evidence, she discovers a wide range of neglect, negligence, and even cover-ups from her time in foster care. Gay reveals that Boris Potts, who owned the sadistic pornographic movie, was arrested for pedophilia shortly after Ashley’s time with the family. Ashley even learns that there “was no evidence that any worker checked on me during the five months I was there, even though they were already investigating Mr. Potts for molestation” (275). 

The class-action lawsuit ends when a judge decides that “the dependency court already protect[s] foster children” and “Florida’s laws ‘provide sufficient protection’ for children in state care” (277). However, Ashley’s cases remain active, and she goes to see the Mosses testify. Ashley is outraged that they can “tell so many lies” (283) and concerned about giving her own evidence in case the lawyer tries to discredit her. However, her concern fades once she realizes that the incidents discussed are still “as vivid as the day they happened” (284).

The judge asks “both sides to try to reach an agreement through mediation” (285), and eventually the case is settled. Ashley is disappointed that she did not get to help the other children more but also “relieved that the lawsuits [are] over and that I [do] not ever have to face the Mosses or any of the workers again” (287). She realizes that “more than love or an unfulfilled longing, I feel pity for my biological mother” (288) and recognizes that, if she had “received a fraction of the money the Mosses—or any of my foster parents—were paid, she could have established herself in Tampa and made a home for us” (288-89). She remains “resentful of Mrs. Moss” and “those in authority who were incompetent, negligent, or looked the other way” and reflects that “[s]o many children in my position have no voice, but I will not be silent” (289).  

Ashley still does not know who her biological father is, although she has been in contact with a likely candidate. He has offered to take a DNA test, but they “have not confirmed paternity” (290) yet. Some years after meeting her mother, Ashley meets her uncle Sammie and his wife, as well as Aunt Leanne and her grandfather. They drive past several places where she used to live, and Ashley learns that Leanne and the others tried hard to take her in but could not secure access to her.

The family asks Ashley and Gay to leave and later reveals this was because Lorraine was driving over, and “[t]hey didn’t want [them] around when she arrived” (293). Later, Leanne says that Lorraine’s “car had broken down and that the police had arrested her” (293). Uncle Sammie looks after Ashley’s half-sister during the crisis. Ashley keeps in contact with Sammie, Leanne, and Lorraine afterward through email and calls.

During her last year in high school, Ashley receives a letter from Dusty, who is in prison. He includes a letter for Luke and says that he has “been trying to contact us for many years” and offers “a different spin on various episodes,” claiming that he “loved Luke and me very much” (294). He even says that he paid for several of the presents Lorraine gave Ashley and Luke. Ashley still thinks of him “as my first father” (294).

Ashley’s grandfather is arrested for selling drugs, and Adele “passed away after a long illness” (294). Mrs. Moss is “arrested again for child neglect” (294) but receives no extra jail time. Ashley sees Uncle Sammie, Lorraine, and her half-sister occasionally and recognizes that it “has been important for me to have caring biological family in my life” (294). Luke has been adopted but is still “struggling to overcome all the setbacks he has had over the years” (295).

Ashely completes the first draft of the book “on the sixth anniversary of my adoption” (297). Phil and Gay give her a music box that plays “You are My Sunshine.” When she hears it, “[s]omething very tight and very deep inside me snap[s]. Tears [spurt] unexpectedly” (297). She sees that “Gay and Phil—my mother and father—[are] crying with me” and feels “something I [have] never known before: Home” (297).