Chapter 2
Nobody moved.
Not me.
Not Ethan.
Not even Daniel.
The only sound was the refrigerator humming behind us.
I stared at the woman standing inside my home.
She had dark hair pulled into a loose knot and the same gray-blue eyes Ethan had.
I had seen those eyes angry.
Sleepy.
Excited.
Sick with fever.
Now I was seeing where they came from.
Ethan spoke first.
“My mother left.”
The woman flinched.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Ethan, go upstairs.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
Daniel turned sharply.
“Go upstairs.”
“No!”
I had never heard Ethan shout like that at his father.
He pointed at the woman.
“Who is she?”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
The woman answered for him.
“My name is Rebecca.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I know my mother’s name.”
Rebecca looked like she had been slapped.
“I suppose you would.”
“Then why are you here?”
Her eyes went to Daniel.
“I think your father should answer that.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“This isn’t the time.”
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because it was such a ridiculous sentence that my brain didn’t know what else to do.
“When exactly would be a better time?” I asked.
“Sarah.”
“No. Don’t ‘Sarah’ me.”
I took the envelope from Rebecca’s hand.
Daniel reached for it.
I stepped back.
“Don’t.”
His arm dropped.
There were dozens of letters inside.
Some were dated years ago.
I pulled out the first one my fingers touched.
Rebecca,
Ethan lost another tooth today. He insisted the Tooth Fairy pays extra for front teeth. You would have laughed.
He’s doing well.
Please trust me that this arrangement is still best for him.
Daniel.
My hands started shaking.
I grabbed another.
Rebecca,
He made the soccer team.
I’ve included the picture you asked for.
Please don’t contact the school directly.
It would confuse him.
Daniel.
Another.
Rebecca,
I’m seeing someone seriously now.
Her name is Sarah.
She’s good with Ethan.
I think having stability at home is helping him.
Please respect our agreement.
Daniel.
My stomach twisted.
I looked at my husband.
“You were writing to her while we were dating?”
He said nothing.
“While I was helping raise your son?”
“Sarah, it’s complicated.”
Rebecca let out a bitter laugh.
“No, Daniel. It was complicated twelve years ago. What you did afterward was pretty simple.”
Ethan looked between them.
“What agreement?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Daniel’s voice became low.
“Rebecca had problems.”
She opened her eyes immediately.
“I had postpartum depression.”
“You disappeared for weeks.”
“I went to treatment!”
“You weren’t stable.”
“I got help because you told me to.”
“And then you signed custody over.”
“Temporary custody.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Rebecca looked at Ethan.
“You were three when I got sick. I was scared all the time. I wasn’t sleeping. I could barely eat. Your father said I needed treatment, and he was right.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“He told me I could come home once I got better.”
Ethan’s face had gone pale.
Daniel interrupted.
“She left the state.”
“My treatment center was in Colorado.”
“You still left.”
“Because your mother paid for it!”
Ethan looked at his father.
“What happened when she got better?”
Daniel said nothing.
Rebecca answered.
“When I got better, your father wouldn’t let me come back.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I leaned against the counter.
Daniel turned toward me.
“You don’t know what she was like then.”
“I know what you told me,” I said.
I remembered that story perfectly.
Daniel had told it on our fourth date.
Ethan’s mother had decided motherhood was too much.
She had taken off with another man.
She had barely looked back.
Daniel had been abandoned.
Ethan had been abandoned.
I had admired Daniel for raising his son alone.
I had loved him partly because I thought he was the parent who stayed.
Rebecca reached into her purse and pulled out a thick folder.
“I brought copies.”
Daniel stared at it.
“You need to leave.”
“No.”
That single word came from Ethan.
Everyone looked at him.
His hands were clenched at his sides.
“You’re not making her leave.”
Daniel took one step toward him.
“Son—”
“Don’t call me that right now.”
Daniel stopped.
Ethan looked at Rebecca.
“You said he sent you pictures.”
She nodded.
“For years.”
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“Did you write back?”
“Every time.”
His voice became smaller.
“Did you ask to see me?”
Rebecca’s expression collapsed.
“Every single year.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Ethan turned toward him.
“You told me she never called.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“You told me she forgot my birthdays.”
“Ethan—”
“You told me she had another family and didn’t care about me!”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“From being abandoned again!”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I never abandoned him.”
“You signed papers.”
“Because you threatened to keep him from me permanently if I fought you while I was sick.”
“I did what I had to do.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“No. You did what made your life easier.”
Daniel pointed toward the door.
“Get out.”
Ethan stepped between them.
“She stays.”
I watched my stepson.
A week earlier, he had told me I wasn’t his mother.
Now he was defending the woman whose name had been turned into a wound inside him.
I couldn’t even be angry at him anymore.
He had been lied to his entire life.
I opened Rebecca’s folder.
Court papers.
Treatment records.
Emails.
Copies of returned birthday cards.
Then I found something that made my chest tighten.
A photograph.
Ethan at eight years old.
He was standing beside me at a school fall festival, his face painted like a tiger.
I remembered that day.
Daniel had taken the picture.
On the back, in his handwriting, were the words:
He’s happy. Please don’t disrupt his life.
I looked at Daniel.
“You sent her pictures of me with him?”
He swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Did she know I thought she had abandoned him?”
“No.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“I thought you knew I existed.”
“I knew you existed.”
My voice broke.
“I didn’t know you were still trying to be his mother.”
Rebecca’s face softened.
“I’m sorry.”
That almost destroyed me.
She was apologizing to me.
When Daniel was the one who had built our entire marriage on a lie.
Ethan suddenly grabbed the folder.
He flipped through papers too quickly to read them.
Then a small card slipped onto the floor.
He picked it up.
It was a birthday card.
The front had a cartoon soccer ball.
Across the top were the words, HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY.
The envelope was unopened.
Return to sender.
Ethan stared at it.
“I was ten.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I sent one every year.”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“Where were these going?”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Then closed.
“Dad.”
No answer.
“Where were they going?”
“I had mail forwarding set up.”
Ethan’s face twisted.
“You sent them back?”
“I thought contact would confuse you.”
“You told me she didn’t remember my birthday.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Losing you.”
The answer came out like a confession.
Rebecca went completely still.
So did I.
Ethan whispered, “So you made me think she didn’t want me because you were afraid I’d want her?”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s not fair.”
Ethan threw the card onto the table.
“Not fair?”
He laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“You made me hate her.”
“I raised you!”
“And she tried to come back!”
“I protected you!”
“From my own mother?”
Daniel slammed his palm onto the counter.
“You don’t understand what I went through!”
Ethan stepped backward.
For the first time, he looked afraid of his father.
I moved automatically and stood beside him.
Daniel noticed.
His eyes snapped toward me.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Turn him against me too.”
My disbelief turned into anger.
“Nobody is turning Ethan against you, Daniel.”
“You’re loving this.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You’ve been punishing both of us all week, and now suddenly she appears? You’re acting like this proves you were right.”
I felt something inside me go cold.
“You really think this is about pancakes?”
His expression changed.
He knew instantly he had gone too far.
I removed my wedding ring.
Daniel stared at my hand.
“Sarah.”
I placed the ring on the kitchen counter.
“I need you to tell me one thing.”
“Don’t do this.”
“Did you ever plan to tell me the truth?”
Silence.
That was the answer.
I nodded slowly.
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“I can leave.”
“No,” Ethan said immediately.
I looked at him.
He looked fifteen again.
Not angry.
Not rebellious.
Just scared.
“Sarah?”
It was the first time he had ever said my name like he needed me.
I wanted to hold him.
But I didn’t know if he wanted that.
So I stayed beside him.
“I’m here.”
His chin trembled.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“You really thought she left?”
“Yes.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then he turned back to Daniel.
“So both of us were lied to.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“I made mistakes.”
Rebecca whispered, “Mistakes?”
He ignored her.
“Ethan, everything I did was because I love you.”
Ethan looked at the unopened birthday card.
“Then why does it feel like you stole something from me?”
Daniel had no answer.
Rebecca wiped her eyes.
“I don’t expect you to call me Mom.”
Ethan looked at her.
“I don’t know what to call you.”
“Rebecca is okay.”
“I don’t know you.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“But you know me.”
She nodded.
“Only from a distance.”
That sentence changed something in his face.
“Did you come to my games?”
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
He stiffened.
My heart started pounding again.
“What?” I asked.
Rebecca hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What do you mean, sometimes?”
Daniel said, “Don’t.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You’ve controlled this story long enough.”
Then she turned toward Ethan.
“When you were eleven, I watched your championship game from the parking lot.”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“When you were twelve, I came to your school concert. I sat in the very back.”
My chest tightened.
“When you were thirteen, I stood across the street from the restaurant where your father took you for your birthday.”
Ethan whispered, “Why didn’t you come inside?”
Rebecca began crying.
“Because your father told me if I approached you, he would seek a restraining order and stop sending updates.”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
Daniel’s silence said everything.
Then Rebecca reached into her purse one more time.
She pulled out a photograph taken from far away.
It showed Ethan at his thirteenth birthday dinner.
Daniel sat on one side of him.
I sat on the other.
My hand rested on Ethan’s shoulder while he laughed at something.
On the back was a date.
And one handwritten sentence.
Thank you for loving him when I couldn’t be there.
I stared at Rebecca.
Then at Ethan.
Then at the husband I suddenly felt I had never known.
But the worst revelation hadn’t come yet.
Ethan picked up another document from the folder.
His eyes moved across the first page.
Then he froze.
“What is this?”
Rebecca looked down.
Daniel lunged forward.
Ethan pulled it away.
“Dad?”
I stepped closer.
At the top of the document were the words PETITION FOR MODIFICATION OF CUSTODY.
The filing date was three years earlier.
Ethan looked at Rebecca.
“You tried to get custody of me?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
“And what happened?”
She stared at Daniel.
“He told the court you didn’t want to see me.”
Ethan slowly turned toward his father.
“I never said that.”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
May you like
And that was when I realized the lies weren’t only in the past.
Some of them were much more recent.
