Chapter 2 - The Car Ride Without His Father
Megan left eleven minutes later.
She took Caleb.
Nothing else mattered.
Ryan followed her into the driveway.
“Megan, stop.”
She buckled Caleb into the back seat.
“Don’t touch this car.”
“I need to explain.”
“You had your chance in the kitchen.”
“You don’t understand what he means.”
Megan slammed the rear door.
“Then explain it.”
Ryan looked toward the house.
Carol stood behind the living-room window.
Watching.
That tiny movement told Megan something.
Even now Ryan was measuring his words against his mother’s presence.
“I told her she could discipline him,” he said.
Megan stared at him.
“How?”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“What did you mean?”
“He’s been acting out.”
“He’s six.”
“He screams when he doesn’t get his way.”
“Did you tell her she could hit him?”
“No.”
The answer came too late.
Megan got behind the wheel.
Ryan grabbed the top of the open door.
“Where are you going?”
“My sister’s.”
“Megan—”
“Move.”
He did.
During the twenty-minute drive to her sister Allison’s house in Naperville, Illinois, Caleb said almost nothing.
Megan kept checking him in the mirror.
His wet shirt clung to his shoulders.
He held his arms tight across his stomach.
“You’re not in trouble,” Megan said.
“I know.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Caleb stared out the window.
Then quietly asked, “Is Dad mad I told?”
Megan gripped the steering wheel harder.
“No.”
Caleb looked at her.
Children knew when adults guessed.
Megan corrected herself.
“I don’t care if he is.”
That answer seemed safer to him.
At Allison’s house, Megan helped Caleb shower and changed him into borrowed pajamas.
When she lifted his shirt, she found a fading yellow-green bruise high on his hip.
Her breathing stopped.
She had seen it the previous week.
Ryan told her Caleb had hit the edge of a playground slide.
Caleb had agreed.
At least Megan thought he had.
Now she crouched in front of him.
“Sweetheart, where did this really come from?”
Caleb’s eyes immediately filled.
“I’m not supposed to talk about last time.”
Megan felt the room tilt.
“Who told you that?”
May you like
He whispered two words.
“Dad did.”
