Chapter 3 - THE PRICE OF KEEPING PEACE
Rebecca drove back from Raleigh that night.
John did not take Lily home.
He booked a two-bedroom suite near the clinic for three nights.
It cost more than staying in his own house.
That was intentional.
He needed distance before he made decisions he could not reverse.
Rebecca arrived shortly after ten.
She looked exhausted.
Her blonde hair was still pinned the way she wore it for hospital meetings, but strands had fallen around her face.
“Where is she?”
“Asleep.”
Rebecca moved toward the bedroom.
John blocked the hallway.
“First, tell me what you knew.”
She stopped.
“John.”
“What did you know?”
Rebecca looked toward the closed bedroom door.
“A couple months ago Lily told me Sarah had made her sit outside after she threw up.”
John’s voice stayed low.
“When?”
“January.”
It was March.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was ten minutes. The weather was mild. Sarah said she was cleaning the bathroom and keeping Mason away because he had that asthma flare.”
John stared at her.
“You believed that?”
“I wanted to.”
The answer was painfully honest.
Rebecca sat down.
“My sister was falling apart.”
Sarah’s divorce had been ugly but not spectacular.
No mansion.
No secret fortune.
No villainous husband.
Two people who had spent years spending more than they earned had finally turned financial stress into constant warfare.
Sarah lost her office-management job three months after the separation.
Eric moved into an apartment near his work.
Sarah and Mason came to the Blackwood house “for six weeks.”
They had stayed five months.
“I thought if she could stabilize,” Rebecca said, “she’d get back on her feet.”
“So you let her discipline Lily?”
“No.”
“She did.”
“I know.”
“Now you know.”
Rebecca looked down.
John saw the distinction land.
Lily had complained before.
Rebecca had minimized it.
That was knowledge.
Maybe not of everything.
Enough.
“What else?”
Rebecca rubbed both hands over her face.
“Sarah watches Lily some afternoons.”
John felt suddenly cold despite the dry sweatshirt he had bought at the hospital gift shop.
“Mrs. Harper?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Not always.”
He understood.
“You lied to me.”
“I changed arrangements when Sarah lost her job.”
“Without telling me.”
“I knew you’d say no.”
“Yes.”
“I was trying to help her.”
“With my daughter.”
“With both kids.”
“Mason isn’t mine.”
Rebecca flinched.
John regretted the phrasing immediately.
The boy had done nothing wrong.
He corrected himself.
“Mason isn’t the child you had a responsibility to protect on my behalf. Lily was.”
“I know.”
John paced once across the small living room.
“What does Lily mean when she says Sarah will lose Mason again?”
Rebecca went still.
There it was.
The inconsistency he had been waiting for.
“Rebecca.”
Her eyes filled.
“It wasn’t supposed to matter anymore.”
“What wasn’t?”
“Two years ago, before Sarah and Eric separated, there was an incident.”
John waited.
Rebecca’s voice dropped.
“Sarah left Mason alone.”
“How old?”
“Four.”
“For how long?”
“About forty minutes.”
John stared at her.
Rebecca hurried on.
“She drove to a pharmacy. He was asleep. She thought—”
“I don’t care what she thought.”
“Someone in the building heard him crying. Police came. Child services got involved.”
“And you let her become Lily’s babysitter?”
Rebecca looked away.
That was when John decided what he had to do next.
Not punish Sarah.
Not expose Rebecca.
Protect Lily.
“I’m speaking to a family attorney tomorrow.”
Rebecca looked frightened.
“About us?”
“About every option I have.”
May you like
And for the first time in their four-year marriage, Rebecca realized John was no longer asking her to help fix the situation.
He was preparing for the possibility that she was part of it.
