Chapter 6
Ethan asked a question before any adult was ready.
“Are you my mommy?”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
I looked at my son.
He stood beside the sofa, dinosaur hanging from one hand.
Simple question.
Impossible weight.
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at me.
I nodded too.
He stared at her for several seconds.
Then he asked:
“Why didn’t you come upstairs?”
Evelyn broke.
I caught her before she folded forward.
She tried to answer through tears.
“I couldn’t.”
Ethan looked confused.
I crouched in front of him.
“Some adults kept Mommy where she couldn’t come to us.”
He looked toward Bianca.
Children notice more than people think.
“Aunt Bianca?”
I did not lie.
“Yes.”
Bianca turned away.
Ethan walked closer to Evelyn.
Not into her arms.
Just close enough to touch the pearl hairpiece still attached to the veil Anna had placed beside her.
“Mommy’s?”
“Yes.”
He thought about that.
Then placed his dinosaur beside her on the sofa.
“For you.”
Evelyn cried harder.
I had to look away.
Later, when Ethan was taken to eat with Anna, Evelyn told me about his birth.
My father had not planned to keep her hidden that long.
The pregnancy changed everything.
If Evelyn reappeared pregnant after supposedly running away, the lie collapsed.
So they kept her.
Month by month.
Always saying another week.
Another decision.
Another family crisis.
Then Ethan was born.
She screamed my name during labor.
Nobody came.
The doctor took the baby.
Evelyn begged to hold him.
Bianca allowed ten minutes.
Then they carried Ethan upstairs and delivered him to me the next morning with a fake note.
I remembered that day.
The tiny child.
My shaking hands.
Bianca standing beside me telling me Evelyn must have wanted me to raise him.
I looked at my sister.
“You watched me thank you.”
Her face finally cracked.
May you like
I had thanked her for helping me survive.
She had been one of the people I needed to survive.
