“Beau, sweetheart, can you go play with Jasper?”
He hesitated.
“Can I have crackers?”
“Yes.”
“Two?”
Sadie gave a weak smile.
“Two.”
He disappeared toward the kitchen with Jasper following behind him.
I waited until he was gone.
Then I faced her.
“Tell me.”
Sadie sat down slowly.
I remained standing.
“Beau is Caleb’s son.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I grabbed the back of a chair.
“What?”
Sadie wiped her face.
“I found out I was pregnant after Caleb died.”
I stared at her.
Every sound around me became distant.
A refrigerator hummed.
A dog collar jingled somewhere in the kitchen.
A child opened a cabinet.
I heard all of it.
Yet I could barely understand the woman sitting five feet away from me.
“You knew for three years?”
“I didn’t know before the accident.”
“But you knew afterward.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
Her face crumpled.
“I was scared.”
I stepped away from the chair.
“Scared of what?”
“Everything.”
Her voice cracked.
“My parents were furious. Caleb and I weren’t together anymore. I was 18 and pregnant, and then he died.”
She pressed both hands against her face.
“I didn’t know what to do.”
I wanted to be angry.
Part of me was furious.
Three years.
Three birthdays.
Three Christmases.
Three years of grieving a son while his child lived somewhere across town.
