“No,” the thirteen-year-old said, steady.
“You’re talking about my house, my sister, and my life.”
No one corrected him.
Harriet felt a sharp ache in her chest — her son was thirteen, but he spoke with the quiet, worn resolve of someone who had been made to grow up far too fast.
Chapter 16 — The Confession
Weston lowered his head.
“Nadia left me when she found out the firm’s partners were opening an internal ethics review,” he admitted.
“Her mother’s name was on the cabin, and Nadia was afraid it would wreck her own career.
She told me I’d dragged too many people into a mess I made.” He looked at Harriet.
“I’m not asking for pity.
I’m here because I finally understood something I should have understood months ago.”
A month earlier, he told them, he had stopped by Etta’s school and promised her that soon “everything will go back to normal.” The seven-year-old had only murmured, “Okay,” with no joy and no belief in it at all, as though she already knew her father’s promises were hollow.
Chapter 17 — Across the Street
Afterward, Weston had driven to this building and parked across the street.