Chapter 2 - The One Person Who Wanted Ryan to Let It Go
Ryan did not question Victor beside the road.
Noah came first.
Estate security separated everyone while Ryan called Noah’s pediatrician and followed instructions to have him examined.
Noah had no apparent injury.
The doctor still documented what Ryan described and told him to watch for changes in feeding, alertness, movement, or behavior.
Ryan gave a statement about the reckless handling of his son.
So did Victor.
Victor called it “stupid horseplay.”
Derek used nearly the same phrase.
Ryan noticed that.
By the time he returned to Hawthorne Ridge with Noah sleeping against his shoulder, his mother was waiting.
Margaret Bennett was sixty-five and still carried herself like the woman who had run the family’s charitable foundation for twenty years.
She looked at Noah first.
Then at Ryan.
“Is he okay?”
“The doctor thinks so.”
Margaret closed her eyes with relief.
Ryan watched her carefully.
“Why did you pay Victor the night Noah was born?”
Her eyes opened.
The pause was tiny.
But Ryan saw it.
“Who told you that?”
“Laura.”
Margaret looked toward the driveway.
“Ryan, tonight isn’t the night for this.”
“Why?”
“You’re upset.”
“My cousin was passing my baby between moving cars.”
“I know.”
“No, Mom. You don’t get to calm this down.”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Victor behaved horribly. Deal with that.”
“I am.”
“Then don’t drag nine-month-old family history into it.”
Ryan stared at her.
“You knew.”
“I know a lot of things that don’t concern what happened today.”
That sentence changed his anger.
Victor had looked afraid when the message played.
Derek had looked guilty.
Now Margaret was trying to separate the two events before Ryan even knew what the older one was.
He shifted Noah higher against his shoulder.
“How much did you pay him?”
Margaret said nothing.
Ryan walked past her.
She caught his arm.
“Please don’t call Laura tonight.”
Ryan turned.
He had not told her he intended to.
“Why not?”
Margaret released him.
“I’m asking you as your mother.”
Ryan looked toward the long driveway.
Victor had been allowed onto this property whenever he wanted for years.
He had keys.
Gate codes.
Access to family vehicles.
Every time Victor drank too much, wrecked something, lost another job, or borrowed money he never repaid, Margaret found a softer explanation.
Ryan had called it loyalty.
Standing there with Noah against his chest, it began to look like fear.
May you like
He went inside.
Then he called Laura.
