to bring flowers anyway.”
My anger shifted into something heavier.
Grief for a woman I had believed, less than an hour earlier, had simply stolen my husband.
She looked through the window at Mason.
“He has my father’s eyes.”
Mason glanced toward us.
Vanessa quickly looked away.
Something about that gesture broke through the tension.
She wasn’t trying to claim him.
She wasn’t trying to take him.
She was afraid to even look.
I stood.
“I think Mason needs food.”
Tyler stared at me.
“That’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“After everything I just told you?”
“Especially after everything you just told me.”
I gathered my bag.
“Mason is seven. Whatever chaos you created, his world does not stop requiring lunch.”
Vanessa gave a shaky laugh through her tears.
I opened the door.
Mason looked up.
“Are we done?”
“No,” I said. “But we’re leaving this room.”
