Chapter 3 - The Name Her Father Already Knew
Rick Caldwell arrived twenty minutes later.
Greer had called him because she no longer trusted herself to decide what should happen next.
Her father walked through Sabine’s front door wearing work boots and a Kansas City Chiefs windbreaker over his office shirt.
He took one look at Sabine’s swollen cheek.
Then at Greer’s face.
“What happened?”
Sabine answered first.
“She attacked me.”
Greer almost laughed.
Instead, she held out the torn envelope.
“Who’s Eli?”
Rick looked at it.
And Greer watched recognition move across his face.
It lasted less than a second.
But she saw it.
“You know him.”
Rick rubbed a hand over his mouth.
“Greer—”
“You know him.”
Sabine said sharply, “This is not the time.”
Greer turned on her.
“When is the time? Fletcher’s five? Ten? When he asks why he doesn’t have a dad?”
Rick lowered his voice.
“Fletcher is upstairs.”
“Good. Then stop lying quietly instead of loudly.”
Rick glanced toward the staircase.
“Eli Ward was somebody your mother knew.”
Greer stared at him.
“Somebody she knew?”
Sabine folded her arms.
“Your mother dated him.”
Greer felt the room tilt emotionally even though nothing moved.
“You told me you didn’t know who Fletcher’s father was.”
“I told you there was no father involved.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
Sabine looked away.
Rick stepped between them.
“Holly’s pregnancy was complicated. Everything around that period was complicated.”
Greer turned toward her father.
“You knew his name.”
“Yes.”
“For three years?”
Rick didn’t answer.
Greer’s throat tightened.
“Was he at Mom’s funeral?”
Sabine spoke too quickly.
“No.”
Rick said nothing.
Again, that was worse.
Greer pulled out her phone.
“I’m taking Fletcher somewhere else tonight.”
Sabine laughed once.
“No, you aren’t.”
“I’m his sister.”
“And I’m his legal guardian.”
Greer hated that Sabine was right.
Unless Fletcher was in immediate danger, Greer could not simply remove him because she believed Sabine was a bad parent.
Sabine knew it too.
Her confidence returned.
“You want to help?” she said. “Go back upstairs and apologize for turning his birthday into a wrestling match.”
Greer looked at the bruise beginning to rise across Sabine’s cheek.
She remembered her own palm connecting.
That part belonged to her.
No matter how justified she had felt, she had lost control.
And now Sabine had something she could use.
Greer turned to Rick.
“Did you see what she did to Fletcher?”
“No.”
“Then ask him.”
Sabine’s head snapped around.
“He’s three.”
“He can still tell you he was scared.”
Rick looked exhausted rather than shocked.
Greer had expected outrage from him.
Instead she saw calculation.
That frightened her more.
She drove back to Lawrence that night without Fletcher.
At 1:13 a.m., unable to sleep, she searched through old photographs stored in her mother’s cloud account.
Birthdays.
Hospital pictures.
Greer’s high school graduation.
Her mother visibly pregnant in a loose yellow dress.
Then Greer found a picture taken eight months before Fletcher was born.
Holly stood at a neighborhood barbecue beside a tall man with dark red hair.
He was laughing at something off camera.
On the back patio table beside him sat a guitar case covered in stickers.
The digital filename was meaningless.
But someone had left a comment beneath the picture years ago.
Holly + Eli finally looking happy.
Greer stared at the screen.
May you like
Sabine had not merely known Eli existed.
The entire family had.
