Chương 10
Solomon stared after her.
Charlotte whispered, “You need to tell Marcus yourself.”
He turned.
“Mom, please stop.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I am done helping you hide things.”
I looked at her.
She met my eyes and did not look away.
There was guilt there.
Real guilt.
It did not undo anything.
But it existed.
Dad said, “Solomon, I want you to pack a bag.”
Solomon looked at me.
“You’re throwing me out?”
I answered before Dad could.
“Yes.”
His face tightened.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“This is Theo’s home.”
“Yes.”
“I’m his father.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t just decide I don’t see him.”
“I didn’t say that.”
He stared at me.
I kept my voice steady.
“But you are not taking him anywhere tonight.”
His eyes moved to the passport in my hand.
I folded my fingers around it.
“And I’m keeping this.”
Solomon looked at my closed hand around Theo’s passport, and something in his face hardened.
“You don’t get to confiscate my son’s documents.”
“He’s my son too.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“No, you said my son.”
Dad shifted beside me.
“Solomon.”
“I’m talking to my wife.”
“You’re talking about a five-year-old like he’s luggage.”
Solomon turned on him.
“Stay out of this.”
Dad’s voice stayed level.
“I own the house you’re standing in, and my grandson’s passport was hidden in a locked drawer beside cash you didn’t tell your wife existed.”
He paused.
“I’m already in it.”
Charlotte sat back down on the edge of the bed as though her knees had stopped cooperating.
“I didn’t know about the passport.”
Solomon looked at her.
“I know.”
“I would never have helped with that.”
“You helped with everything else.”
Her mouth closed.
The sentence hit harder than shouting.
I watched Charlotte’s eyes fill and felt no satisfaction.
That surprised me.
I had imagined, in the hours after Theo told me, that confronting her would feel clean.
It did not.
Nothing about this was clean.
Solomon walked to the closet and yanked down a duffel bag.
He began throwing clothes into it without folding them.
A sweatshirt.
Two pairs of jeans.
Underwear.
The same blue tie I had found for him that morning.
I stood there watching that tie disappear into the bag and wondered how many times I had helped him prepare to lie to me.
“Where are you going?”
I asked.
“My mother’s.”
Charlotte looked up immediately.
“No.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“You’re not coming to my house tonight.”
His face went blank.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
He gave a disbelieving laugh.
“Where exactly am I supposed to go?”
Charlotte stared at him.
“That is not my responsibility right now.”
I had never heard her speak to him that way.
Solomon had not either.
His shoulders dropped slightly, then tightened again.
“Unbelievable.”
Charlotte stood.
“No, what’s unbelievable is that I spent months telling myself I was keeping your family together while you were putting money aside and preparing to leave with Theo.”
“I wasn’t preparing to leave with him.”
“You had his passport.”
“I already explained that.”
“You explained nothing.”
Dad said quietly, “Charlotte.”
She looked at him.
“Don’t.”
Her voice shook.
“Please don’t tell me to calm down.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
She pressed her lips together.
For a second, she looked older than she had the day before.
Not frail.
Just tired.
“I thought he was scared.”
Her eyes came to me.
“I thought he was making stupid choices because he was afraid you’d leave him.”
I said nothing.
She nodded once as if my silence had answered anyway.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I knew that every time I came here.”
“Yes.”
Her face crumpled for half a second before she recovered.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology entered the room and found nowhere to land.
I could not accept it.
I could not reject it.
Theo had trusted her.
That mattered more than whether she cried.
Solomon zipped the duffel bag hard enough to catch one corner of a shirt.
“Great.”
He pulled the fabric free.
“Everybody has decided I’m a monster.”
Jennifer had left.
Charlotte had turned.
Dad had arrived.
Now Solomon was losing the version of himself he had been able to maintain while all of us were kept in separate rooms.
I said, “Nobody used that word.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Then stop giving yourself lines nobody said.”
He looked at me.
For a moment, I saw anger.
Then fear returned.
“What are you going to tell Theo?”
The question stopped me.
Dad looked away.
Charlotte sat down again.
I hated Solomon for asking.
I hated that it was the right question.
“I’m going to tell him you’re staying somewhere else for a while.”
“And why?”
“That’s enough for tonight.”
“He’ll ask.”
“I know.”
“He’ll think it’s because he told you.”
My stomach twisted.
That was the first thing Solomon had said all evening that mattered more than my anger.
Theo would think exactly that.
Because Charlotte had already planted the idea.
Tell Mom and Daddy might leave.
Now Daddy was leaving.
The lie had built a trap around the truth.
I sat on the edge of the chair near the dresser.
“We need to make sure he knows this is not because he told me.”
Solomon nodded quickly.
“Yes.”
For a second, we were parents again.
Not husband and wife.
Not betrayer and betrayed.
Just two adults trying not to let our child mistake cause for consequence.
Then Solomon said, “So I should come with you.”
I looked at him.
“To your parents’ house.”
“No.”
“He needs to see me.”
“Not tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust you tonight.”
His face closed.
“There it is.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
That hurt him.
I saw it.
Good, a small ugly part of me thought.
Then I hated that part too.
Solomon looked toward Theo’s passport.
“I would never hurt him.”
May you like
“I didn’t say you would.”
“You’re acting like I’m dangerous.”
