I texted him.
“Ethan wants the whole family there.”
Not long afterward, my phone buzzed.
Jordan.
Even seeing his name made my stomach tighten.
His reply was short.
Cold.
I read it several times before the meaning fully settled in.
My chest tightened.
I set my phone beside the counter and stared toward the swimming pool, struggling to breathe.
“Mom, are you okay?”
Ethan stood in the doorway, his wet hair dripping onto his T-shirt.
I smiled for his sake.
He looked at me longer than I wanted.
Then he quietly returned outside.
That look broke something inside me.
I couldn’t let Jordan arrive with Percy and make me look like the abandoned wife in front of my children and every neighbor who had watched our family grow over two decades.
I opened my laptop.
