Chapter 4 - The Third Version
Nora stood so quickly her chair hit the wall.
“He did what?”
Ethan flinched.
She saw it.
Immediately lowered her voice.
“Sorry.”
He stared at his pasta.
I asked:
“Where did this happen?”
“In the car.”
“Why were you in Marcus's car?”
“Because Mom couldn't get me after training.”
Nora said:
“I asked Ms. Patel. Marcus happened to be at the facility and said he was going our direction.”
I looked at her.
She didn't defend it.
“He has picked Ethan up before.”
True.
Marcus had come to birthdays.
School fundraisers.
One miserable father-son camping weekend when rain flooded every tent.
He wasn't a stranger.
That made it worse.
Ethan said:
“He wasn't scary.”
“I know.”
“He didn't make me do anything.”
“I know.”
“He just kept asking.”
“What?”
“Whether California sounded fun.”
Nora looked at me.
California was one of the markets Marcus had floated.
I had never mentioned it at home.
Ethan continued.
“He asked if I'd like being somewhere nobody cared about Dad's old records.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
Neither did Nora.
Marcus did.
Our current city treated my career like public property.
Every slump became history.
Every milestone became television.
Every restaurant had my rookie photo somewhere on a wall.
A new team could sell reinvention.
Marcus had used that pitch on me.
Apparently now on my son.
“What did you say?” Nora asked.
“That I didn't want to leave my school.”
“And then?”
“He said Mom was tired here.”
Nora stared.
“I never told him that.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You said you hated people taking pictures at the grocery store.”
She stopped.
I remembered that complaint.
Months earlier.
After a stranger recorded Ethan crying in a checkout line because somebody at school had embarrassed him.
Nora had said:
“I hate what this city turns us into.”
Marcus had been in our kitchen that night.
One sentence.
Turned into a relocation preference.
I leaned back.
“What did he tell you about me?”
Ethan glanced at Nora.
“Tell me.”
“He said you wanted to stay because this team is your whole life.”
That one landed differently.
“Do you think that?”
He shrugged.
“I don't know.”
Twelve years old.
Already trained to answer dangerous questions like a diplomat.
Nora touched his shoulder.
“You don't have to decide what your dad wants.”
Ethan said:
“Marcus said I could help.”
“With what?”
“You two.”
The room went quiet.
“How?” I asked.
“He said if I told you both I wanted the same thing, then you wouldn't have to keep fighting.”
Nora's face changed.
“He asked you to tell me you wanted to move?”
Ethan nodded.
“And Dad you wanted to stay?”
Another nod.
I stared at him.
Marcus hadn't merely given us three versions.
He had tried to make Ethan the bridge between them.
A child carrying two opposite answers.
I stood.
Nora said:
“Don't call him.”
I looked at her.
“I'm calling him.”
“That's exactly why I made the envelope conditional.”
I almost laughed.
“You don't get to manage my response.”
“No. But I'm not letting you storm out, scream at Marcus for twenty minutes, sleep at the Mercer, and tell yourself you handled it.”
My jaw tightened.
“I came home.”
“For one hour.”
“I said tonight.”
She held my stare.
Ethan pushed his bowl away.
“I don't want to be here if you fight.”
The sentence stopped both of us.
Nora said:
“We're not fighting.”
Ethan gave her a look.
I almost smiled.
Wrong moment.
I sat back down.
“Okay.”
He looked at me.
“Okay what?”
“I won't call Marcus tonight.”
Nora exhaled.
Ethan picked up his fork again.
Then I asked him:
“Did Marcus ever tell you the team wanted me gone?”
Ethan frowned.
“No.”
Nora looked at me.
I felt the trap before she spoke.
“You told me they did.”
“I said they were exploring a trade.”
“No.”
She walked to the kitchen counter.
“You said, ‘They're making it clear I may not have a choice.’”
I remembered saying it.
I also remembered knowing, even then, that the sentence protected me.
If we moved, the team had done it.
If we stayed, I had fought for us.
Nora reached for her phone.
“I met with Dana Whitaker yesterday.”
The team president.
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus started sending me houses.”
I went still.
“In California.”
She unlocked her phone but did not hand it to me.
“I asked Dana one question.”
“What?”
“Whether your team had actually asked you to leave.”
May you like
She looked at me.
“Caleb, she said nobody in that building had.”
