Chapter 4 - Boys Make Mistakes
Mark’s father stepped down from the porch.
“Let’s not make this bigger than it is.”
Mark looked at him.
“Her car is in a tree.”
“It’s an old car.”
Mark’s mother began crying.
Not for Lily.
For Parker.
“Please don’t ruin his future over this,” she said. “He has college. Internships. You know how boys are.”
Lily lowered her eyes.
The spare key pressed into her palm.
Mark watched his daughter absorb the family lesson being offered to her: the person who breaks something matters more than the person who built it, as long as the breaker has a brighter future.
“No,” Mark said.
His mother blinked.
“No what?”
“No, I don’t know how boys are.”
Parker lifted his phone again.
“You really doing evidence photos like some wannabe cop?”
Mark turned toward him.
“No. Like her father.”
Vanessa moved closer.
“Call insurance if you want. But if you involve the police, I’ll tell them Lily tried to trap Parker here because she’s jealous.”
Claire stared at her.
“Jealous of what?”
Vanessa smiled thinly.
“His opportunities. His friends. The life he has.”
Lily looked at Parker’s Mercedes.
Then at her crushed hatchback.
“You mean the life you bought him?”
For a moment, Vanessa had no answer.
Parker stepped forward.
Mark’s son Noah moved beside his sister.
“You’re lying,” Noah said.
Parker pointed at him.
“Careful, little man.”
Mark raised his phone toward him.
“Say that again.”
May you like
Parker smiled.
But he stopped talking.
