Chapter 22 - THE SON WHO WASN’T THEREGavin took Tyler for breakfast the next morning.
Just the two of them.
A small diner near school.
Tyler ordered pancakes.
Barely touched them.
“Is Mom coming home?”
“Not right now.”
“Are you getting divorced?”
Gavin paused.
“I don’t know.”
Tyler looked worried.
“Is it because I told?”
“No.”
“Mom said our family could break apart.”
Gavin’s chest tightened.
“Look at me.”
Tyler did.
“You did not break our family.”
“But if I didn’t—”
“If you didn’t tell me, Grandma would still be unsafe.”
Tyler looked down.
Gavin continued.
“Adults are responsible for what adults do.”
“What about Mom?”
“She’s responsible for what she did.”
Tyler looked at his father.
“And you?”
The question surprised him.
Gavin nodded.
“And me.”
Tyler waited.
“I left too much on your mother.”
“That doesn’t make what she did okay.”
“No.”
Gavin almost smiled.
“You’re right.”
He became serious.
“And when you told me, I didn’t listen.”
Tyler’s eyes filled.
“I thought maybe I was wrong.”
Gavin closed his eyes briefly.
That hurt.
“I’m sorry.”
Tyler wiped his face.
“I kept thinking if I got better proof you’d believe me.”
Gavin reached across the table.
“You were ten years old.”
Tyler looked at him.
“And I made you be the adult in the house.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes.”
Gavin squeezed his hand.
“You were watching medication. Food. Water. Grandma’s fear. Those were adult responsibilities.”
Tyler started crying.
“I just didn’t want her alone.”
“I know.”
Gavin moved around the booth and hugged him.
“I should have protected both of you.”
Tyler whispered:
“Grandma still loves Mom.”
Gavin pulled back.
“What makes you say that?”
“She asked if Mom was okay last night.”
Gavin looked stunned.
Of course she had.
Beatrice.
Even after everything.
Tyler continued.
“She’s not mad like you.”
“She has every right to be.”
“Maybe she is.”
Tyler thought.
“She just doesn’t want Mom dead.”
Gavin almost laughed at the brutally literal childhood phrasing.
Then his face sobered.
“No.”
He looked out the window.
“Neither do I.”
Monica would face consequences.
Financial.
Marital.
Legal if professionals determined it necessary.
But Gavin did not want revenge.
He wanted safety.
Truth.
Repair where repair was possible.
May you like
And boundaries where it was not.
For the first time, he understood they were not the same thing.
