I nodded slowly, though that answer only deepened the questions already circling in my mind.“I see,” I said quietly. “Was your Mama seeing someone while you guys were living in the city?”
Lucas pushed himself to his feet now, looking at me with a seriousness that felt older than his years.“Yes,” he replied.“Caleb.”
I kept my expression neutral even though something inside me shifted slightly at hearing it spoken so clearly.
“Do you know what happened between them?” I asked.
Lucas looked down at his hands for a moment before answering.“No,” he said softly. “But he was the one who gave me Oreo.”
My eyes drifted briefly to the dog wagging his tail beside Emma.
Lucas continued speaking, his voice carrying both fondness and confusion.
“He would come over for dinner,” Lucas said. “We would hang out. We even went to his big house for Christmas and New Year.”
A small smile touched his lips at the memory, but it faded almost immediately.
“Then…” He paused, staring at his hands as if searching for something that was no longer there.
“I went to summer camp and came back,” he continued quietly, “and Mama said we were moving and that she lost her job.”
His chin trembled as he spoke the next words.
“She and Caleb broke up.”
Lucas’s shoulders slumped slightly.
“She didn’t want me talking to him anymore.”
The sadness in his voice was subtle.
Without thinking, I crouched down beside him and pulled him into a hug.“It’s okay, buddy. Sometimes people don’t want to be reminded of the past, and they want to move on.”
Lucas hugged me back tightly, his small arms wrapping around my shoulders.“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You have been in our lives the longest.”
I held him, feeling the quiet trust in the way he leaned into me.“I’m always going to be here,” I told him gently. “I promise.”
When Lucas finally pulled back, he returned to playing with Emma and Oreo.
My thoughts raced like a car hurtling out of control.
To Jiya.
To Caleb.
To the life she had left behind.
What had happened between them that had been painful enough to make her leave the city, the man she had loved, and disappear into a quaint village like Cowichan Bay? And why did I have the strange feeling that whatever that story was, it had not truly ended yet?
I rubbedthe back of my neck when I heard the knock on my door.
Jiya had messaged me the day before, saying she would meet me at my apartment at noon to talk.
My thoughts had been a tangled mess ever since my conversation with Lucas. The things he had said about Jiya’s past kept spinning in my mind, like dust caught in a restless wind.
I had barely slept that night, and when I tried to eat breakfast that morning, my stomach had twisted so badly that I had nearly thrown it all up.
Just thinking about what Jiya might say to me made me feel sick.
