I kept my voice low. “I heard what she said.
Something about what happens if I find out. So, tell me the truth.”
Leo swallowed. “It’s for my car.”
“Your car runs fine, Leo.”
“For upgrades.”
He looked at Elena.
She shook her head once.
I laughed, but there was nothing funny in it.
“So you need permission from her to speak.”
Elena stood, pushing her plate away. “Enough.”
“No. Not enough.
You two whisper in the garage all the time. You stop talking when I walk into a room. Elena, you leave the room for phone calls.
And now I see money changing hands.”
Leo’s voice cracked. “It’s not like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like.”
That hurt more than I expected.
I pushed back from the island. “Fine.
Be like that.”
Elena followed me into the laundry room. I pulled the dryer vent loose even though it didn’t need fixing.
“You scared him, Nathaniel.”
“I asked him a basic question.”
“You cornered him!”
I turned. “Are you paying my son to lie to me, Elena?”
Her face went pale.
“No.”
“Then what are you paying him for?”
She hugged herself. “I need you to trust me. Please.”
“Trust usually comes with honesty.”
Her eyes filled, but she blinked it back.
“Please don’t ruin this. Not again.”
“Ruin what?”
She looked toward the stairs, then back at me. “Not tonight.”
“Elena.”
“I can’t do this with you angry, Nathaniel.”
She walked out.
After that, I noticed everything: Elena taking calls in the pantry, Leo coming home late, and the way both of them stopped talking when I entered a room.
I noticed that Elena swapped her coffee for ginger tea.
One night, I asked, “Are you sick?”
“Just let her rest, Dad,” Leo snapped.
Once, I found her standing in the spare room.
She said she was looking for wrapping paper, but there was no wrapping paper in that room.
That was when my mind went to ugly places: an affair, debt, trouble at school, or worse.
The worst part was Leo. He’d been nine when his mother left us, deciding birthday cards counted as parenting.
I’d built my life around being the parent who stayed.
Now my own son could barely look at me.
Last night, the pressure broke me.
I went into Leo’s room with folded laundry and saw his gym bag open on the floor. Cash peeked from the side pocket.
I shouldn’t have touched it, but I did.
Inside were two $100 bills.
Under them was a small receipt folded twice.
The ink had smudged slightly, but I could make out three words:
My pulse thudded in my ears.
I marched downstairs. Leo was in the kitchen, eating cereal straight from the box.
He followed me upstairs, and I shut the door harder than I meant to.
“Is Elena paying you to lie to me?”
He looked smaller than he had in years.
“Answer me.”
“She made me promise, Dad. She said if you knew, you wouldn’t react rationally and you’d ruin everything.”
The words hit like a punch because they sounded too much like me.
“What would I ruin?”
Leo grabbed his hoodie from the chair.
“I can’t hide this anymore, Dad,” he said.
“I’ll take you there.”
“Where?”
“To where she goes some evenings.”
Ten minutes later, we were in my truck.
Leo sat beside me with his hood up, only pointing when I needed to turn.
“Leo, just tell me. Prepare me for what I’m about to see.”
“Is she meeting someone?”
His jaw tightened. “It’s not like that.”
“That’s not an answer.”
We drove in silence until Leo pointed toward a quiet street lined with brick houses.
“Park here,” he said.
“She’s here tonight.”
I killed the engine. “Who lives here?”
“Dr. Collins,” he said, getting out of the truck.
“A therapist. Elena started seeing her after the appointment.”
“What appointment?”
He looked toward the house. “Please don’t make me explain it on the sidewalk.”
I walked up the porch steps with him behind me.
Through the window, I saw Elena on the couch, holding something yellow. A woman sat across from her with a notebook.
I knocked.
The woman opened the door. Her eyes landed on my son.
Dr.
Collins looked past me to Elena. “Is it okay if they come in?” Elena wiped her face, then nodded.
Only then did Dr.
Collins step aside.
We walked inside.
Behind her, Elena stood. The yellow thing slipped from her hand onto the rug.
Tiny baby socks.
Leo stepped beside me. “She wasn’t hiding a man from you, Dad.
She was hiding a baby.”
The room went silent.
I looked at Elena. Her face crumpled before she could hide it.
“You’re pregnant?”
She nodded.
“How long?”
“Ten weeks.”
