Chapter 4 - ANDREW COMES HOME
Andrew arrived twenty minutes later.
Too fast.
Martha must have scared him.
He came through the apartment door still wearing his work jacket, hair damp from the August humidity, eyes moving immediately from Martha to me to Ethan.
“What happened?”
I looked at him.
“That’s what I want to know.”
Martha moved toward him.
“Andrew, she recorded me.”
His face changed.
Not enough for anyone else to notice.
Enough for me.
He was not shocked that there might be something to record.
He was shocked that I had it.
Ethan stood beside the couch with both hands clenched at his sides.
“Dad.”
Andrew turned toward him.
“Buddy, go to your room.”
“No.”
The word was small.
But it landed hard.
Andrew stared at him.
Ethan had always obeyed quickly.
Too quickly.
“Did my mom write me?”
Andrew closed his eyes.
That was the second confession.
The first was Martha’s rant.
The second was Andrew’s face.
Martha snapped:
“This is not a conversation for children.”
I looked at her.
“It became one when you said his name in the hallway.”
Andrew said quietly, “Nora, this is complicated.”
“No.”
The word came out sharper than I expected.
“It was complicated before you let him believe his mother abandoned him.”
Ethan flinched.
I regretted the sentence instantly.
Not because it was false.
Because truth can still hit a child too hard.
I knelt in front of him.
“Ethan, sweetheart, I don’t know everything yet. But I promise you I’m going to find out.”
He looked at Andrew.
“Did she write?”
Andrew opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Martha stepped in.
“Jenna was unstable. She would have ruined him.”
Ethan backed up.
I stood.
“Get out.”
Martha blinked.
“This is my son’s home.”
“It’s my apartment too. Get out.”
Andrew finally found his voice.
“Nora, don’t throw my mother out.”
I looked at him.
“She withheld food from Sophie. She called it a lesson. She threatened Ethan’s truth. She is leaving.”
Martha’s mouth tightened.
“She took Ethan’s food.”
“Sophie is two.”
“She needs to learn.”
“Not from you.”
For once, Andrew did not defend me.
For once, I did not wait for him to.
I opened the door myself.
Martha stared at me, then at the phone in my hand.
May you like
She left.
The silence after the door closed felt less like peace and more like the moment before a building collapses.
