Chương 14
Officer Keller stood on the porch with another officer.
I opened the door.
“Everything okay?”
she asked.
“Yes.”
Brandon came up behind me.
“This is unnecessary.”
Keller looked past me.
“Mr. Mercer.”
“Officer.”
“We received a call about raised voices.”
Brandon looked around the room as if searching for whoever had betrayed him now.
Mrs. Donnelly’s hydrangea watering suddenly seemed less ridiculous.
“I live here.”
Keller nodded.
“I know.”
“This is a family argument.”
“I understand.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
Her calm irritated him more effectively than anger would have.
She asked whether anyone felt unsafe.
I said no.
Claire said, “Not currently.”
Brandon shot her a look.
Keller noticed.
Then Lucas spoke.
“I don’t want to stay here tonight.”
Everything stopped.
Brandon turned.
“What?”
Lucas swallowed.
“I want to call Mom.”
Alyssa immediately said, “Me too.”
Brandon’s face went pale again.
“Your mother is in Michigan.”
“I know.”
“You’re not going to Michigan tonight.”
Lucas looked at Officer Keller.
“Can I call her?”
Keller answered carefully.
“You can call your mother.”
Brandon stepped forward.
“I am their custodial parent this week.”
“That may be,” Keller said.
“But he can still make a phone call.”
Lucas took out his phone.
His hand was shaking.
Brandon stared at him.
“Lucas, do not turn this into something it isn’t.”
Lucas looked up.
Then he said the first thing all afternoon that seemed to wound Brandon more than any accusation.
“I don’t know what it is anymore.”
Officer Keller looked at Brandon, then at Lucas, and whatever she saw made her shift her weight slightly toward the children.
“Make the call,” she said.
Brandon opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Lucas stepped into the kitchen and called Megan.
Alyssa followed him, clutching the stuffed seal against her chest.
I stayed in the living room with Brandon.
For the first time since he came home, neither of us had anything useful to say.
Claire leaned against the wall near the back door.
Officer Keller spoke quietly with the other officer on the porch.
From the kitchen, Lucas’s voice came through in fragments.
“Mom?”
“No, we’re home.”
“No.”
Then silence.
Then, “Can you come get us?”
Brandon flinched.
A few seconds later, Megan’s voice became loud enough through the phone that I could hear the rhythm but not the words.
Lucas answered, “I know.”
Then, “He lied about Liam.”
Brandon moved toward the kitchen.
I stepped in front of him.
“Don’t.”
“They’re my kids.”
“And they’re talking to their mother.”
“You don’t get to control this.”
“I’m not.”
He gave me a look that was almost pleading.
“This is spiraling.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“It already happened.”
That seemed to hit him harder than shouting would have.
The choices were already made.
The ticket had already been canceled.
The plane had already taken off.
The six nights had already passed.
Liam had already learned how quiet a house could be when every adult in his life was somewhere else.
Brandon could not manage any of that now.
He could only manage what people called it.
Megan arrived three hours later.
She had driven from Michigan without stopping except for gas and looked like it.
Her hair was pulled into a loose knot and she wore gray sweatpants with a black cardigan thrown over a tank top.
When she stepped through the door, Alyssa ran to her.
Lucas did not.
He stood near the stairs with both hands shoved into his pockets.
Megan hugged Alyssa, then looked at Brandon.
“I asked you if Liam was with someone.”
Brandon rubbed a hand over his face.
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.”
“You drove four hours to have this conversation in front of the kids?”
“I drove four hours because my eleven-year-old called me crying and asked me to get him.”
Lucas looked at the floor.
Megan saw it.
Her anger changed.
Not less.
Sharper.
She went to him and put a hand on the back of his neck.
He leaned into her for half a second before pulling away.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
She did not argue.
Then she looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
The words surprised me.
“For what?”
“I believed him.”
Something in my chest tightened.
“So did I.”
Megan glanced at Brandon.
“He told me you agreed Liam should stay with family.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Brandon spread his hands.
“I was trying to avoid a mess.”
Megan stared at him.
“You created one.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Claire made a sound under her breath.
Brandon turned.
“Do you have to be here?”
“Yes,” Claire said.
“Apparently I do.”
Megan ignored them both.
“Did you leave Liam alone on purpose?”
Brandon hesitated.
That hesitation answered more than any confession.
“I thought someone would check on him.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He looked toward the window.
The police cruiser was still there.
Megan followed his eyes.
Then she looked back at him.
“You knew no adult was staying in the house.”
“Yes.”
The room went still.
Even Claire stopped moving.
It was the first time he had said it plainly.
Alyssa began crying again.
Megan put an arm around her.
Lucas stared at his father.
Brandon added quickly, “I thought Tyler would stop by.”
Megan closed her eyes.
“You left an eight-year-old child alone overnight.”
“I thought he could handle one night.”
“One?”
Brandon said nothing.
Megan’s face changed.
“You thought you could decide each day whether one more night was acceptable.”
He looked away.
That was close enough to the truth that he had no language ready for it.
Megan took the kids upstairs to pack.
Brandon did not stop her.
Maybe he knew Officer Keller would.
Maybe he had finally exhausted himself.
He sat at the dining table and looked at the papers I had placed there hours earlier.
The canceled ticket was still on top.
He touched the corner of it with one finger.
May you like
“I refunded yours too.”
I looked at him.
