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“He needs you guys. Whatever he’s going through, he needs you and not me.” She leaned into me and sniffled. “It hurts. I knew things would change, but I assumed I’d always be his world, the way he is mine. I can’t fight this, though. I won’t.”
CHAPTER 41
Justin
Mason walked out of the apartment with an unreadable expression on his face. He walked around Forrest on the steps and turned to face our son once he was a few stairs below and could look at Forrest on his level. “Are you proud of how you treated your mom?”
Forrest tucked his chin to his chest, showing he could be just as stubborn as the three of us. He hadn’t budged an inch with me and Ben.
“I know you’re only six, Forrest, but you’re still responsible for your actions. You made your mom cry.”
Forrest cut him off. “Mom cries every night.”
I bent forward like he’d slammed his fist into my ribs. It hurt to hear what we’d done to her.
“Yeah. We did that. We made her cry because we left and she didn’t know if we were safe. You were scared, too, weren’t you?” Mason braced his hand on the railing. “We have to be responsible for what we did, too. We messed up. So now we don’t get what we want. You made her cry, too. When we get home, you’re grounded, Forrest.”
Ben shifted and I could tell we both felt uncomfortable with the idea of punishing Forrest so fast. He’d just learned we were his fathers. He was going to hate us.
Forrest stuck out his bottom lip. “Mom never grounds me.”
“Because she’s a really good mom and you were always kind to her. She didn’t need to ground you. You haven’t been kind to her lately, though, have you? You’ve been mean to your mom and that’s not okay.” Mason softened his tone but it looked like he was struggling. “Forrest, we love you. You’re our son and we’ll always be here for you. We’re so happy we found you. I love you mom, too. I don’t like seeing her upset. We both have to be better at not hurting her.”
His little shoulders finally sank. “She wouldn’t tell me where you were. She made us move.”
Ben cleared his throat. “That was our fault. We didn’t tell her where we were going, so she didn’t know.”
I knelt beside him. “She moved here because she was so hurt. Your mom didn’t do anything wrong. You owe her a huge apology.”
“Why didn’t you tell her where you were?”
Mason sighed. “It was a secret. For our job.”
“Mom didn’t make you leave?” His little lip trembled.
“No. She tried to make us come back. That’s why she’s upset with us now. She didn’t think it was fair for us to leave you like that. She was right, too. Your mom is a great woman, Forrest. She’s nice and pretty and smart. She would never do anything to hurt you.” I ruffled his hair and looked up at Mason. “We all owe your mom a giant apology. Then maybe she’ll want to move back to our house.”
Mason rolled his lips between his teeth. “She wants us to spend time with Forrest. Without her.”
My stomach sank. “Is she sure?”
“She isn’t budging.” He ran his hands through his hair and looked back down at Forrest. “When we get home, we’re not playing with any of those new toys. We’re going straight to bed. You’re grounded until tomorrow night.”
Instead of pouting, Forrest nodded. “Okay.”
“You’re going to apologize to your mom, too.”
“Can she come?”
Mason looked away and took a few deep breaths before looking back at Forrest. “She wants you to have time to be with us.”
Big tears filled his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Picking him up, Mason held him close. “Your mom will forgive you. She’ll forgive us, too.”
I hoped.
It took forever to get Forrest into bed that night. He was upset and it was clear he wanted his mom, but he wouldn’t say it. We talked more about how he treated his mom and by the time he fell asleep, he was ready to find her and apologize big time. He’d also sworn he’d never do anything like it again, but all knew that was a pipedream. He’d hit his teenage years and become a serious pain in the butt, just like everyone else, eventually.
