Chapter 17 - Eli Thought It Was His FaultEli sat on Carol’s living-room floor building a city from wooden blocks.
When Landon and Melanie entered together, he looked nervous.
That alone broke Landon’s heart.
“Hey, buddy.”
Eli looked down.
“Hi.”
Landon sat on the floor.
Melanie sat on the other side.
For a moment, they resembled the family they had been one week earlier.
Only now all three knew something had changed.
“Mom said you’re worried.”
Eli moved a block.
“No.”
“Are you worried about the closet?”
The boy’s hand stopped.
Landon waited.
Eventually Eli whispered:
“I wasn’t supposed to pull the tie.”
Melanie immediately began crying.
Landon kept himself steady.
“Who told you that?”
“Nobody.”
“Then why think it?”
“Because after I pulled it, everybody got mad.”
Landon swallowed.
“Buddy, look at me.”
Eli did.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“But if I didn’t pull—”
“No.”
Landon moved closer.
“The problem was already there before you saw the tie.”
Eli frowned.
“What problem?”
Landon looked at Melanie.
They had discussed the language.
Adult problem.
Broken promise.
No sexual details.
No villain-making.
“Mom and Uncle Wyatt broke a very important promise to me.”
Eli looked at Melanie.
“What promise?”
Melanie wiped her face.
“A marriage promise.”
“Like wedding?”
“Yes.”
Eli thought.
“Are you mad at Mom?”
Landon answered honestly.
“Yes.”
Melanie flinched but nodded.
“Dad has a reason to be angry.”
Eli’s eyes filled.
“Are you leaving?”
Landon’s chest tightened.
“I’m going to live somewhere else.”
Eli started crying.
“No.”
Landon pulled him close.
“Listen.”
“No!”
“Eli.”
“I want our house!”
“I know.”
“I want you and Mom!”
Melanie covered her mouth.
Landon held his son.
“I know.”
Children did not care about emotional nuance.
They cared who tucked them in.
Where their toothbrush lived.
Whether morning looked the same.
Landon whispered:
“This is not because of you.”
Eli sobbed.
“You opened a door.”
He pulled back enough to look into Eli’s face.
“That’s all.”
“If you hadn’t opened it, the problem would still be there.”
“Would you know?”
“Maybe not yet.”
“Then everything would be normal.”
Landon almost said no.
Instead:
“It would look normal.”
Eli sniffed.
“What’s different?”
Landon thought.
“Sometimes something can look okay while people are hurting underneath.”
Eli didn’t fully understand.
That was fine.
He was six.
Melanie reached toward him.
Eli moved into her arms.
Landon watched.
A week earlier, he might have interpreted that as rejection.
Now he understood.
Eli loved both.
That was not betrayal.
Melanie whispered:
“I am so sorry, baby.”
Eli looked at her.
“Did you make Dad sad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Melanie looked at Landon.
He gave the smallest nod.
“Because I made a selfish choice.”
“What’s selfish?”
“When you think too much about what you want and not enough about who it hurts.”
Eli absorbed that.
“Like when I take cookies?”
Landon almost laughed.
“Sometimes.”
Melanie smiled through tears.
“Yes.”
Eli looked at Landon.
“Did Uncle Wyatt be selfish?”
“Yes.”
“Is he still my uncle?”
The question surprised them.
Landon answered:
“Yes.”
“Can I see him?”
Landon hesitated.
“Not right now.”
“Why?”
“Because he and I need time.”
Eli looked disappointed.
Landon hated Wyatt for creating that too.
Not only losing his brother.
Losing Eli’s uncle.
A relationship the child had loved.
But Landon remembered Wyatt telling Eli his father preferred work.
That boundary remained necessary.
Eli asked:
“Are you and Mom still married?”
“For now.”
“What about later?”
Melanie cried again.
Landon answered:
“We’re going to live in different houses.”
Eli began crying.
Landon held him again.
There was no clever solution.
No twist that made divorce painless.
No evidence proving betrayal had actually been a misunderstanding.
They sat on the floor for almost an hour.
Eli asked whether his toys would move.
Yes.
Whether Dad would still take him to soccer.
Yes.
Whether Mom could come to school events.
Yes.
Whether Christmas would happen.
Yes.
Twice, maybe.
That idea interested him.
Then Eli asked:
“Will you still be family?”
Landon looked at Melanie.
She looked back.
“Yes,” Landon said.
“Different family?”
“Yes.”
Eli thought.
“Okay.”
Not acceptance.
A beginning.
After he fell asleep on the sofa, Melanie and Landon stood in the kitchen.
She whispered:
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not making him hate me.”
Landon looked at her.
“I won’t lie for you.”
“I know.”
“But I won’t recruit our son into my pain.”
Melanie nodded.
“That’s more than I deserve.”
“This isn’t about what you deserve.”
Again.
Parenting.
She looked toward the living room.
“I really did love our life.”
Landon felt anger.
Sadness.
Something almost tender.
“I know.”
“That’s the worst part.”
“Yes.”
She started to leave.
Then Landon asked:
“Why was Wyatt in our bedroom that day?”
Melanie turned.
He had never asked the specific question.
Not really.
He knew affair.
Knew history.
But that day.
“Were you meeting to sleep together?”
Melanie looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Landon absorbed it.
No rescue.
No secret innocence.
“Afterward, I told him it had to end.”
He looked at her.
“Why then?”
“Because Eli had asked me that morning why Uncle Wyatt came when you were gone.”
Landon closed his eyes.
“The lie reached him.”
“Yes.”
“I realized we weren’t hiding it anymore.”
Melanie cried.
“We were teaching him something without telling him.”
Landon nodded.
“And then I came home.”
“Yes.”
“If I had been twenty minutes later?”
She looked away.
“I don’t know.”
That answer was probably the truth.
Landon’s phone rang.
Nathan.
“Sorry,” Nathan said. “But you need to see this.”
“What?”
“Investigators searched Owen’s storage facility.”
“And?”
“They found records of payments to Wyatt.”
Landon looked toward Melanie.
“What payments?”
“Not recent.”
Nathan hesitated.
“Ten years old.”
Landon’s stomach tightened.
“Ten?”
“Yes.”
“Before I met Melanie?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“That’s the problem.”
Nathan exhaled.
“The memo line says: M. Introduction.”
Landon froze.
Melanie saw his face.
“What?”
He looked at her.
The fundraiser.
Wyatt introducing Melanie to Landon.
Ten years ago.
May you like
Maybe it had not been Wyatt’s spontaneous idea.
Maybe Owen had been manipulating them before Landon ever knew his wife existed.
