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“That she should terminate this pregnancy.”
Maggie takes a step back. “I can’t do that,” she says. “Iwon’t.”
“Look. We all know this marriage was a mistake, and the last thing my son needs is to be saddled with a child. If I’m being honest, we’re not even sure the child ishis….”
A loud gasp fills the surrounding air.
Maggie turns to see Heidi, her skin ashen, her mouth open in disbelief. Aiden stands a few steps behind her, a similar expression on his face.
“Please don’t make a scene,” Lisa says, her voice icily calm.
“How could you say such a terrible thing?” Heidi demands.
“Oh, please. Don’t play innocent with me. You forget I walked in on you getting very cozy with one of the neighbors.”
“What are you talking about? You mean Mark? I told you, he’d been helping me make dinner.”
“In the den? On the sofa? The whole house stinking of marijuana?” Lisa scoffs. “God only knows what happened before I got there.”
“Nothing happened!” Heidi swivels toward Aiden. “I swear, nothing happened.”
“You have to admit that the timing of this pregnancy is very suspect,” Lisa says.
“You miserable bitch,” Heidi whispers.
“Well, I certainly don’t have to stand here and be abused.” Lisa straightens her shoulders and turns toward Maggie. “If you’ll excuse me…” She starts walking away, then stops, turns back toward her son. “Aiden? Are you coming?”
Maggie finds herself holding her breath. Hadn’t she used that exact tone with Erin earlier? She makes a silent vow never to do it again.
Aiden’s eyes dart between his mother and his wife.
“Please don’t go,” Heidi says.
Don’t go,Maggie repeats with her eyes.
“Can’t catch me!” Ben suddenly hollers, cutting between them, Leo and Tyler on his heels.
“Aiden…” his mother beckons.
Aiden sways toward her.
“Don’t go,” Heidi says again. “What your mother said about the baby…it’s not true. You know it’s not true.”
Aiden watches Leo, Ben, and Tyler running increasingly noisy and narrow circles inside the small cul-de-sac and feels the pavement beneath his feet crumble and turn to sand. His eyes scan the shadows of the nearby palm trees for signs of insurgents. He sees an enemy soldier emerge from Julia’s house, carrying what appears to be a bomb….
In the next second, he is flinging himself at Mark and wrestling him to the ground. The apple pie Mark was so proudly holding goes flying into the air, then crashes to the ground, chunks of crust and apple exploding like shrapnel. All around people are screaming.
“Aiden! What are you doing?”
“For God’s sake, Aiden, stop!”
“Help! Somebody, stop him!”
Aiden feels hands at his back, on his shoulders, on his arms, pulling him off the young man he now recognizes as Julia’s grandson. He looks around helplessly as Nick and Sean release him to go help Mark.
“This isyourfault,” Lisa says to Heidi. She surrounds Aiden with her arms and leads him back toward his house.
“What the hell just happened?” Olivia asks her husband.
Sean does a quick scan of the small dead-end street, its residents seemingly frozen in place. “Looks like the fireworks have already started.”
