“She used four fonts,” he said. “That is never a good sign.”
Marcus replied, “Her lawyer is bluffing.”
Lydia added, “Her lawyer is underpaid.”
Olivia simply drank her tea.
She was discovering that silence could become a tool.
Andrew tried other approaches.
He sent flowers. Olivia donated them to the lobby without reading the card.
He mailed Ethan a model aircraft carrier. Olivia allowed Ethan to keep it after inspecting the package herself.
He sent an email titled For Our Family.
He wrote about stress, loneliness, command expectations, temptation, and regret. Ethan appeared in the seventh paragraph.
Serena was mentioned six times before that.
Olivia forwarded the email to Lydia.
Lydia replied with one word:
Useful.
Ethan struggled more quietly.
He stopped asking to call Andrew every evening. Then suddenly he asked three times in one afternoon. He drew houses split into two halves. At school, he told his teacher that his father was “in trouble with grown-up rules.”
One night Olivia found him sitting on the bathroom floor holding the model aircraft carrier.
“Mom,” he asked, “is Dad bad?”
She sat beside him.
“He made bad choices.”
“But is he bad?”
She considered her answer carefully.
“He is your father. You are allowed to love him. You are also allowed to be hurt by him.”
Ethan traced the tiny deck with one finger.
“Do you love him?”
Olivia answered with the truth her son could carry.
“I loved who I thought he was.”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“I miss that dad.”
“So do I.”
