Uncomfortable Truths

Oh, I forgot to mention...
That morning, during breakfast, my daughter revealed some things to me that were, well, to put it mildly, unsettling.
"Mom," she began while eating her Haagen-Dazs, "when I broke into Peter Winterly's house, I didn't take any money or anything like that.  It was for his rare comic books and action figures."

"Winterly had this collection of comic books and action figures, most of them belonged to his son Charlie who died.  Some of them were pretty rare and hard to find pieces... so I planned it carefully.  On the morning I went, he was supposed to be at City Hall meeting with the council and the Crown Prince - I had checked his schedule online."

"So I approached his front door...."

"And Winterly himself was there!  I was like, you're supposed to be at City Hall!  He was very upset with me and he called the police.  I didn't get to explain to him that I wanted to see those action figures again."

 

"The police brought me home that day and he was like, 'Ah, Sierra, good to see you again.  So, you tried to get at Winterly's comic book collection, eh?  He guards those with his life.'"

"So I've noticed."

"You lit into me that night but I didn't even get a chance to explain why I did it."

I let out a deep sigh.  "Sierra - you do know that was wrong, right?"
She didn't say anything, just kept eating.
"Sierra, what did I tell you about taking things that are not yours?  That stuff did not belong to you.  It belonged to Mr. Winterly.  I'm sure he wants to keep those to remember his son by.  Now, whatever comic book or action figure you're after, your father and I might have purchased them, or we would have told you to try to earn the money yourself to buy them if you wanted them that badly."
"I didn't take the stuff, I got caught before I did."
"It's good you got caught, Sierra.  I'd have hoped that you'd have learned your lesson at that point. Stealing is not right, under any circumstances.  Your father and I did not raise a thief."