Chapter 10 - What Lucas Heard
Natalie and I met again.
This time, Lucas was with her.
I almost asked her to leave him home.
Then I saw him.
Ten years old.
Dark hair.
Michael’s eyes.
Thomas’s crooked smile.
The resemblance was so obvious that I felt anger all over again at everyone who had accepted that first piece of paper.
Lucas stood beside his mother, nervous.
“Hi.”
“Hi, Lucas.”
He looked at me.
“You’re Claire.”
“Yes.”
“And Emma’s mom.”
“Yes.”
He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
“My dad said you were nice.”
The word Dad hit differently than I expected.
Not because Lucas said it.
Because Michael had earned that title from him while hiding the relationship from Emma and me.
Lucas looked at Natalie.
She nodded.
Then he looked back at me.
“Grandma Diane said you didn’t want me coming to Chicago.”
My body went cold.
“When did she say that?”
“The second time she visited.”
Natalie’s jaw tightened.
“She told him before I could stop her.”
I crouched slightly so Lucas did not have to stare up at me.
“I need you to know something.”
“I didn’t know you existed until Sunday.”
His eyes widened.
“Dad said you knew.”
“I know.”
“And he was wrong to say that.”
Lucas looked toward his mother.
Then back at me.
“So you weren’t mad about me?”
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
“Lucas, none of this is your fault.”
“You did not cause adults to lie.”
He nodded slowly.
I could see him absorbing it.
Then he said, “Grandma Diane said my mom kept Dad away.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
I looked at her.
She shook her head slightly.
Not now.
Lucas deserved truth.
But not every ugly detail in a café.
I looked at him again.
“There are some things the adults are still figuring out.”
“But your mom did not keep your dad away because she didn’t care.”
Lucas stared at me.
“Did Grandma lie?”
I chose my words carefully.
“I think Grandma Diane told you things that were not true.”
His chin trembled.
That broke my heart more than anything Diane had done to me.
Adults like Diane considered children small enough to manipulate.
They forgot children became people who eventually remembered.
After Natalie took Lucas outside, she returned alone.
“He wanted to tell you himself.”
“I’m glad he did.”
Natalie sat down.
“Diane tried to make him dislike you.”
“Why?”
“Because if he blamed you, he wouldn’t blame Michael.”
“And if he didn’t blame Michael, Michael wouldn’t blame her.”
Natalie nodded.
There it was.
Diane’s entire family system in one sentence.
Everyone carried someone else’s guilt so Diane never had to hold her own.
I looked through the window at Lucas.
“Emma wants to meet him.”
Natalie smiled faintly.
“He wants that too.”
Then her expression changed.
“But Claire, there is one more thing.”
I almost told her I never wanted to hear those words again.
Instead, I waited.
“Michael told me he would tell you after the custody agreement was signed.”
“When is that?”
“Friday.”
I stared at her.
That was two days away.
“He had a deadline?”
“Yes.”
“And he still wasn’t planning to tell me until afterward?”
Natalie hesitated.
“He said once everything was legally settled, you wouldn’t be able to change anything.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Michael had not simply been afraid.
May you like
He had been waiting until I had no voice in a decision that would permanently change our family.
That realization hurt more than the original secret.
