Chapter 5 - DEREK’S SONS
The part nobody expected involved Derek’s boys.
Ethan was thirteen.
Cole was ten.
Both had been at the barbecue.
Both had laughed.
For months, Lucas wanted nothing to do with them.
I respected it.
Then Melissa called.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Ethan wants to apologize.”
I became cautious.
“To Lucas?”
“Yes.”
“Did Derek tell him to?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
She exhaled.
“He’s been in therapy.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because things at home got bad before Derek lost his job.”
I did not ask for details.
Melissa continued.
“Ethan says he laughed because Derek was watching him.”
My stomach tightened.
Of course.
The tradition had already reached another generation.
“What does Lucas want?”
“That’s why I called.”
I asked him.
Lucas thought for a long time.
Then:
“Can Ethan write it?”
Not meet.
Write.
Good.
Ethan’s letter arrived.
Messy handwriting.
No dramatic language.
Lucas,
I laughed when Dad burned your toys. I knew you would cry. I laughed because I didn’t want Dad to think I was a baby too. That was mean.
My throat tightened.
I should have told him to stop.
Then:
I’m sorry about Mr. Bamboo. I know a new panda isn’t the same.
Lucas read it three times.
Then put it beside Frank’s letter.
“What do you think?”
I asked.
“He was scared.”
“Yes.”
“Does that mean it was okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
Two weeks later, Lucas invited Ethan to play Minecraft online.
Repair at the speed children choose.
Cole followed later.
No forced cousin reunion.
No family photo.
Just small things.
Melissa eventually filed for divorce from Derek.
She told me:
“This isn’t about him losing his job.”
I believed her.
“It’s about how he treats people when he thinks they can’t leave.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Derek had learned dominance as masculinity.
Then practiced it wherever he had power.
At home.
At work.
With children.
The job loss did not create the problem.
May you like
It removed one place he could hide from it.
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