Page 138 of Kylie

“I think they’re confused. They were so little. And then they saw how upset Travis and Gage were. Kade blames me for that.”

“He said that?”

Pulling myself back to the conversation, I met Dr. Briggs’s gaze. “Kade asked me why I made them cry.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“That I didn’t mean to.”

“What did he say to that?”

“He told me it wasn’t nice.”

“Do you want to explain to him what happened?”

I shook my head. “No. God, no. I don’t want them to have that image in their heads. They’re too young to understand. Too … innocent.” I swallowed. “But Travis did tell Kade.”

“He did?”

I recalled the conversation I’d overheard. The one between Travis and Kade last Saturday morning. I didn’t know what prompted it, but I got the gist of what it was about.

“Remember Thursday, when we were at Grammy and Pops’ house?” Travis asked Kade. “When everyone was tellin’ the things they are grateful for?”

“I remember,” Kade admitted, his tone reluctant to participate in the conversation.

“Well, one of the things we’re most grateful for is that your mom’s home with us.”

“But she left.”

“Your mom didn’t leave because she wanted to.”

“Then why?”

I stood there, waiting patiently, wondering if Travis would gloss over it the way we all had.

“Do you really want to know what happened to your mom?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember when Kate was taken?”

Kade’s head snapped over, his gaze slamming into his dad’s face. “Is that what happened to Mommy?”

“It is.”

“We didn’t look for her. We put her in a box in the ground,” Kade stated.

“We didn’t know she was taken. We thought she had died. But your mom wasn’t in that box. We just didn’t know it at the time.”

“You wouldn’t let me see her.”

Travis took a deep breath. “No, we wouldn’t.”

“If you’d’ve let me see her, we would’ve known she wasn’t there.”