Chapter 4 - What Lucas Had Been Told
Rachel did not tell me that night.
Not because I let her leave.
Because Emma needed me more.
I found my daughter sitting beneath her blanket with her knees pulled to her chest.
I sat beside her.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Finally, Emma asked, “Does Lucas know Dad better than me?”
My heart cracked.
“No.”
“Dad sees him every Thursday.”
“That doesn’t erase eight years with you.”
“Then why did he hide him?”
There was no answer an eight-year-old could carry.
So I gave her the safest truth I had.
“Your dad made a very bad decision because he was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of telling the truth.”
Emma frowned.
“Grandpa always said telling lies makes truth harder.”
My father had said exactly that.
I kissed her forehead.
“Grandpa was right.”
The next morning, Michael slept on the couch.
I did not sleep at all.
At seven-thirty, Rachel returned.
Michael joined us at the kitchen table.
I put my phone in the center.
“Nothing gets hidden today.”
Rachel nodded.
Michael looked miserable.
Rachel explained that Michael first met Lucas at a coffee shop in Kenosha six months earlier.
The second meeting happened at a park.
Then Thursdays became routine.
Dinner.
Basketball.
Homework.
Sometimes an arcade.
Sometimes Natalie joined them.
I looked at Michael.
“Were you sleeping with her?”
“No.”
Natalie had a fiancé named Aaron.
That gave me no comfort.
Then Rachel said something that did.
Not comfort me.
Break me.
“Lucas asked about you.”
I looked at her.
“What did Michael tell him?”
“Rachel.”
Michael’s warning came instantly.
She looked at him.
“No more.”
Then she looked at me.
“He told Lucas that you knew he existed.”
The room went silent.
I stared at my husband.
“You told him what?”
Michael stood.
“I didn’t know how to explain why he couldn’t meet Emma.”
“So you blamed me?”
“I didn’t blame you.”
“What exactly did you say?”
Michael swallowed.
“That you needed time.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“I needed time?”
“You didn’t even give me information to process.”
Rachel wiped her palms against her jeans.
“Lucas thinks you’re uncomfortable with him.”
That was worse than the money.
Worse than Thursdays.
Michael had created a version of me for a ten-year-old boy.
A woman standing between him and his sister.
A woman who did not want him.
I moved away from the table because I suddenly could not stand being near Michael.
“You made me the villain in a story I didn’t know existed.”
“I panicked.”
“You keep using fear like it’s a permission slip.”
He followed me.
“I wanted to protect Emma.”
“From her brother?”
“From chaos.”
I turned around.
“You were the chaos.”
Rachel spoke quietly.
“There’s one person you should talk to.”
“Natalie?”
She nodded.
Michael immediately said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
That was exactly why I knew it was.
I looked at Rachel.
“Call her.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Claire.”
I met his eyes.
“If Natalie has been living with the consequences of this family’s secrets for ten years, I think I can survive one conversation.”
Rachel pulled out her phone.
She typed a message.
Thirty seconds later, it buzzed.
Rachel read the response.
“She’ll meet you today.”
May you like
Then she looked up.
“She wants you to come alone.”
