Chapter 2 - The Son Ryan Had Before Emily
Emily took Mason downstairs.
Ryan remained in the hallway with Lenora.
Not because Emily trusted him to handle his mother.
Because Mason had started shaking so badly she could feel it through his hoodie.
She sat with him on the living-room rug.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Mason stared at the floor.
“Grandma said Daddy gets sad when people talk about Ethan.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“How do you know his name?”
“I saw his picture.”
“Where?”
“Grandma’s room.”
Mason hesitated.
“She said I wasn’t supposed to open the blue box.”
There it was.
Not childish imagination.
A photograph.
A name.
A hidden box.
Ryan came downstairs ten minutes later.
Lenora had locked herself in the guest room.
Emily stood.
“Who is Ethan?”
Ryan looked toward Mason.
“Not here.”
“No.”
Emily’s voice stayed low.
“You don’t get privacy after our son was threatened for asking a question.”
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I had a son before you.”
Emily felt the words physically.
“How old?”
“Sixteen now.”
“Sixteen?”
Ryan nodded.
Emily had been married to him for eight years.
She knew about his college debt.
His first apartment.
The baseball scholarship he lost after tearing his shoulder.
The girlfriend who broke his heart at nineteen.
Apparently she did not know that girlfriend had given birth to his child.
“What happened?”
“His mother took him.”
“When?”
“When Ethan was four.”
“Where?”
“Oregon.”
“You haven’t seen him in twelve years?”
Ryan looked away.
“No.”
Emily heard Mason sniff behind her.
She lowered her voice.
“You told me you had no children before Mason.”
“I told myself I didn’t anymore.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
“I know.”
“No, Ryan. You don’t get to say ‘I know’ like that explains eight years.”
He looked broken.
Emily was too angry to care yet.
“What does your mother mean by hidden?”
“I don’t know.”
From the staircase came Lenora’s voice.
“You know enough.”
Ryan turned.
His mother stood at the bottom step, cardigan crooked, one hand pressed against her ribs.
“You let that woman steal your first son,” she said.
Then she pointed at Emily.
“And now she’ll turn this one against you too.”
Emily’s hands went cold.
Ryan whispered, “Stop.”
But Lenora smiled.
“You never told her the reason Ethan’s mother left, did you?”
May you like
Emily looked at her husband.
Ryan’s silence answered first.
