Chapter 3 - THE PROMISE RYAN MADE BEFORE THE WEDDING
Ryan asked Robert to take Ethan upstairs.
Robert refused.
“If this concerns him, you don’t get to discuss him like furniture while he’s ten feet away.”
Ryan looked at his son.
Then crouched.
“Buddy, can Grandpa take you to his house for dinner?”
Ethan glanced at Vanessa.
Robert noticed.
Ryan did too.
“Yes,” Ethan whispered.
Robert took him.
Only after Ethan was safely at Robert’s home with his grandmother Linda did Robert return.
Ryan and Vanessa were still in the kitchen.
The orange-juice glass had been washed.
That irritated Robert.
Evidence of humiliation disappearing while the humiliation remained.
Ryan spoke first.
“When Emily died, Ethan became terrified I would replace her.”
Robert stared.
“He was three.”
“I know.”
“He barely understood death.”
“I know.”
Ryan continued.
When he began dating Vanessa two years later, Ethan initially refused to be around her.
He screamed once when Vanessa sat in Emily’s old chair.
He cried when Ryan removed a family photograph from the mantel.
A child therapist advised them not to pressure Ethan into calling Vanessa Mom.
That part made sense.
“What changed?” Robert asked.
Ryan looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa answered.
“Nothing.”
Robert frowned.
Ryan corrected her.
“Ethan started calling her Mom on his own.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
Robert looked at Vanessa.
“And you told him to stop.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at Ryan.
Ryan answered quietly.
“Because I asked her to.”
Robert stared.
Ryan explained.
After Ethan first called Vanessa Mom, Ryan panicked.
He felt guilty.
Like allowing the word meant participating in replacing Emily.
So he told Vanessa they should discourage it.
“For how long?”
Ryan rubbed his forehead.
“I don’t know.”
“A week?”
“No.”
“A month?”
Ryan did not answer.
Robert felt anger rising.
“You made that little boy responsible for your guilt.”
Ryan looked sick.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“But Vanessa made it worse.”
Ryan glanced at his wife.
She snapped:
“I followed what he wanted.”
Robert leaned toward her.
“Did he tell you to pour juice over Ethan?”
“No.”
“Kick his chair away?”
“No.”
“Tell him food bought by his father doesn’t belong to him?”
Vanessa looked away.
Robert turned back to Ryan.
“Your bad decision gave her a rule.”
Then he looked at Vanessa.
“She turned that rule into permission.”
Ryan finally asked:
“Why?”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“Because somebody needed to teach him that calling me Mom doesn’t make me responsible for pretending everything is equal.”
Robert stopped.
May you like
“Equal to what?”
Vanessa realized too late that she had said something else she was not supposed to say.
