Chapter 7 - THE FATHER HE DIDN’T REMEMBER
Ryan agreed to meet Evan once.
Public place.
No surprises.
A diner at noon.
Ryan arrived early and chose a table beside the window.
Evan entered exactly on time.
He didn't try to hug Ryan.
That earned him one point.
“Thank you for coming.”
“This isn't reconciliation.”
“I know.”
“I'm here because I want answers.”
Evan nodded.
Ryan placed the recorder on the table.
“I heard what you said to her.”
Evan stared at it.
For the first time since Ryan had met him, confidence left his face.
“I was angry.”
“You threatened to track her forever.”
“She had taken my son.”
“You were following her before she left.”
Evan looked away.
“She kept canceling visits.”
“So you sat outside her office?”
“I wanted to talk.”
“Fourteen calls in one night?”
“I was losing my family.”
Ryan leaned back.
“Do you hear yourself?”
Evan's eyes returned to him.
“What Linda did was illegal.”
“That doesn't make everything you did normal.”
“No.”
The admission surprised Ryan.
Evan folded his hands.
“I was controlling.”
Ryan waited.
“I thought because I was your father, I was entitled to know where you were every second. I told myself that was love.”
Ryan's jaw tightened.
“And seventeen years later you put a tracker under my seat.”
Evan looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“So what changed?”
Evan didn't answer.
Ryan nodded.
“Exactly.”
The waitress arrived.
Neither ordered food.
Evan pulled out several photographs.
Ryan refused to touch them.
“What do you want from me?”
“To know you.”
“Why now?”
“Because I finally found you.”
“No. Why do you need to know where I live? Where I drive? When I'm downtown?”
“I was afraid Linda would interfere.”
“That's between you and her.”
“You don't know what she—”
Ryan raised one hand.
“No.”
Evan stopped.
“Both of you keep trying to recruit me into your version of the war.”
“Ryan—”
“I was seven. I am not seven anymore.”
Evan leaned back.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Then Evan said something Ryan didn't expect.
“Your mother isn't lying about everything.”
Ryan frowned.
“I scared her.”
Evan looked through the window.
“I was furious all the time. Not violent. But furious. I watched her. Called constantly. Showed up when she told me not to.”
His mouth tightened.
“I thought if I didn't control the situation, I'd lose you.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
Ryan almost felt sympathy.
Then Evan said:
“But she still had no right to erase me.”
There it was.
The other truth.
Ryan knew then that there would never be a version in which one parent became innocent enough for the story to be easy.
He stood.
Evan looked up.
“Will I see you again?”
“I don't know.”
Ryan walked toward the exit.
His phone vibrated.
Security alert.
Movement detected at apartment door.
Ryan opened the video.
Linda stood outside his apartment.
She was holding a grocery bag.
She knocked.
Then tried the door handle.
Ryan stared at the screen.
Across the diner table, Evan watched his expression.
“What happened?”
May you like
Ryan locked his phone.
“Nothing you get to fix.”
