Chapter 8 - THE FAMILY CHAT
Ethan replied once.
Adults will handle adult issues. June is not responsible for inheritance or family conflict. Do not involve the children.
Then he removed June from the group chat.
Richard called immediately.
“You embarrassed Blake.”
“He embarrassed June publicly.”
“He’s twelve.”
“So why are you giving him adult financial information?”
Richard hung up.
Margaret called next.
“Your father is distraught.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“June was crying on her birthday.”
“Blake was embarrassed too.”
“Mom.”
Silence.
“You still can’t say June first for one sentence.”
Margaret began crying.
“I’m trying to keep everyone together.”
Ethan’s voice softened.
“No. You’re trying to keep Dad from facing what he did.”
That ended the call.
Later, Blake’s mother’s sister, Karen, contacted Ethan.
Melissa had told her about Richard’s promise.
She had never liked it.
“She told him not to make Blake a payment.”
Ethan froze.
“What?”
“After Aaron died, Richard kept saying he’d make it right through Blake. Melissa said, ‘My son is not your restitution.’”
That sentence landed harder than anything else.
Karen had a letter Melissa wrote during her final illness.
In it:
Richard loves Blake, but sometimes I think he needs Blake to forgive something Blake is too young to understand.
Then:
If I die, please make sure they raise him as a child, not as Aaron’s monument.
Ethan closed his eyes.
Both of Blake’s parents had, in different ways, rejected Richard’s mythology.
Yet after Melissa died, Richard controlled the story.
Then Karen said:
“There’s something else. Melissa wanted you considered as Blake’s guardian.”
Ethan looked up.
“What?”
“Richard told the court she wanted him and Margaret only.”
“That’s what I was told.”
Karen shook her head.
“She listed you as alternate.”
Ethan’s anger returned.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Karen answered:
May you like
“Richard said you declined.”
Ethan never had.
