Chapter 2
The hospital’s notes showed three incidents.
Breakfast two days earlier.
Dinner the previous night.
Lunch that morning.
In each case, Evelyn had either removed part of Caleb’s food or told staff he did not want it.
One nurse challenged her.
Evelyn claimed Caleb’s stomach was upset.
Another believed her because she introduced herself as the child’s grandmother and said Dominic had approved the dietary restriction.
Dominic had approved nothing.
Caleb was in the hospital after fainting at school and striking his forehead against a low shelf.
Doctors initially suspected dehydration after a stomach virus.
Now Dominic wondered how much of the weakness had been illness and how much had been Evelyn restricting his food.
“Did she do this at home too?” Dominic asked.
Caleb stared at his blanket.
Laura touched his hand.
“You can tell Dad.”
Caleb whispered, “Sometimes.”
Dominic felt something cold settle into his chest.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
Caleb looked at Tyler.
Tyler looked miserable.
“Grandma says Tyler needs more because he’s growing.”
Tyler immediately said, “I don’t!”
Dominic raised one hand.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Tyler’s eyes filled.
“She makes me take stuff.”
Rebecca arrived twenty minutes later.
When Tyler saw his mother, he began crying.
Rebecca took him into the hallway.
Dominic followed.
“I need to know what Mom has been saying to him.”
Rebecca looked defensive.
“About Caleb?”
“Yes.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“Dominic, she has always had weird ideas about bloodlines.”
“That sentence is going to stop being useful very soon.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“She thinks Laura trapped you.”
Laura, standing several feet away, went rigid.
Dominic said, “That’s not what I asked.”
Rebecca exhaled.
“She tells Tyler he has to represent the family because Caleb probably won’t be around forever.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“I thought she meant because you and Laura weren’t married.”
“You thought that was acceptable?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you stop it?”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“You know what Mom is like.”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s answer came quietly.
“That’s becoming the problem.”
He had spent years allowing everyone around Evelyn to use her personality as an explanation for why boundaries were impossible.
She was controlling.
She was old-fashioned.
She was territorial.
She was grieving.
She was complicated.
None of those descriptions had stopped her from hurting a child.
Dominic instructed hospital security to remove Evelyn from Caleb’s visitor list.
Then he removed every family member except Laura and Rebecca until he knew who had known what.
Evelyn called him ten minutes later.
He answered.
“You’re humiliating me.”
“You took food from my sick son.”
“I was protecting this family.”
Dominic looked through the glass toward Caleb.
“From lunch?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No.”
He paused.
“I don’t.”
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“You will.”
Then she hung up.
May you like
Dominic stared at the phone.
For the first time, he wondered whether the paternity accusation had never been about Caleb at all.
