“They have a daughter.”
“Her name’s Helen. Diane’s older daughter, Hannah, isn’t Dad’s. She came before him. When Dad threw me out, I ended up at a shelter across town. I started working there. That’s where I met Hannah, who was volunteering.”
He swallowed hard.
“Diane always told the girls he was just a family friend, someone who helped with the rent. He never stayed over when they were home. Hannah had only ever seen him in passing. Then one night, I showed her a picture of my family. She recognized him as the man who’d been at her sister’s school recitals.”
“She came before him.”
“Oh, God,” I whispered.
“Hannah went through her mother’s filing cabinet. Diane had kept everything: every receipt, statement, and photo. It took months to copy it all without her noticing.” Ethan’s voice cracked.
“I knew if I called you, Dad would find out, and he’d shut it all down before I had proof. Staying silent was the only way to keep you safe until I had everything. I didn’t want him to make you doubt me again.”
I lowered myself onto the couch. The baby blinked up at me.
“Hannah went through her mother’s filing cabinet.”
“She had Helen two days ago,” Ethan said. “Hannah is still in the hospital. She’s not well. She asked me to bring the baby somewhere safe because she doesn’t trust her mom after what she discovered. I didn’t have anywhere else to go, Mom. I didn’t.”
I looked at my son. A year of silence sat between us, and yet here he was, holding up the truth I had been too afraid to see.
“You came back to protect me,” I said.
He nodded, his eyes wet.
“I couldn’t let him keep doing this to you.”
Then, faintly, I heard the sound I knew better than my own heartbeat. Tires on the wet driveway. Richard’s car pulled in.
