Five minutes after reading the note, I strapped my drowsy daughter into her car seat, the letter folded in my pocket, and I drove.
My mother opened the door before I knocked. Maybe she heard the tires screech into her driveway, or maybe she was expecting this.
“What did you do?” I asked. “What on earth did you do?”
I strapped my drowsy daughter into her car seat…
Her face went pale as realization dawned on her.
“She did it?” she whispered. “I didn’t think she ever would.”
“I found the note,” I said, shifting Evie higher on my hip. “Jess said you made her promise something. I need you to explain. Now.”
Behind her, the kitchen light was on.
“I need you to explain. Now.”
Aunt Marlene was at the counter, drying her hands on a dish towel. She looked up, took one look at my face, and went still.
“Oh, Callum. Come in, honey. You should sit for this,” my mother said.
“Just talk. It’s my daughter’s birthday, and her mother walked out on us. I don’t have time for polite.”
My mother led us into the living room. Aunt Marlene followed, slow and quiet, like she already knew she was about to hear something she wouldn’t forgive.
“You should sit for this.”
“You remember when you came back from rehab?” Mom asked. “Right after the second surgery?”
“Of course I do.”
“Jess came to me not long after,” she said, twisting her hands. “She was overwhelmed. You were still angry at the world, and you were in unimaginable pain. She didn’t know how to help you.”
I said nothing.
“You remember when you came back from rehab?”
“She told me she’d slept with someone before you got home,” my mother continued, eyes dropping. “A one-night stand. A mistake. She found out she was pregnant a day before your wedding.”
My chest tightened.
“She didn’t know for sure if Evie was yours,” my mother said. “After rehab, you two were able to be together. But she wasn’t sure, and she couldn’t bear to tell you after everything you’d already lost.”
I stared at her, the room suddenly too bright.
“She found out she was pregnant a day before your wedding.”
Aunt Marlene let out a sharp breath. “Addison, what did you do?”
My mother bit her lip.
“I told her the truth would break Callum,” my mom said, voice thin. “I told her if she loved him, she’d build the life anyway. That Evie could be his second chance.”
“That was wrong,” Aunt Marlene said, flat and clear. “That wasn’t protection. That was control.”
“I told her the truth would break Callum.”
“You had no right,” I said, my voice cracking.
“I was trying to protect what little you had left,” my mother whispered.
“You didn’t protect anything.”
My voice dropped, rougher than I meant it to.
“You had no right.”
“And look, I can understand how Jess could’ve been feeling some type of way. Guilt. Fear. Being overwhelmed. I get that.”
I looked down at Evie, small, warm, trusting against my chest, and my throat tightened.
“But she left her baby behind,” I said, each word steady. “Whatever she felt, it doesn’t excuse that.”
My mother’s eyes filled. “She said she wouldn’t take Evie. She promised me. She said that Evie looked at you like you hung the stars in the sky. She could never take that away from you.”
“But she left her baby behind…”
“And you let a promise replace the truth.”
Aunt Marlene stepped toward the door and picked up her purse. Then she paused, eyes still on my mother.
“I’m so disappointed in you, Addison. Shame on you.”
My mother sighed deeply as her sister walked out the front door.
Aunt Marlene stepped toward the door and picked up her purse.
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