Sophie’s eyes filled.
Adam moved beside her.
“And Dad might not come back?”
“But wherever I live, I’m still your dad. You won’t have to guess where I am anymore.”
Ben stared at the carpet.
“And you shouldn’t have had to keep my apartment secret.”
Ben’s shoulders shifted.
“But wherever I live, I’m still your dad.”
“I didn’t want Sophie upset.”
“I understand why,” Adam said. “But that wasn’t your job.”
Then Adam started explaining why they had waited.
Tara corrected him.
“We both agreed to wait, Adam, but you were the one who wanted Ben to keep the apartment quiet.”
“I didn’t want Sophie upset.”
“You agreed because we didn’t want Sophie worrying before we had answers.”
“And she worried anyway.”
Ben’s head dropped again.
Both of them looked at me.
“Look at them.”
“And she worried anyway.”
Sophie was wiping her cheeks. Ben had gone still.
“You can settle who made which mistake later. Right now, you’re turning the truth into another argument.”
Adam leaned back.
I looked directly at him.
“I’m your mother, Adam, so you get the harder version. Ben spent an entire summer carrying a key because you made him responsible for information he wasn’t old enough to manage. Your intentions don’t change what it became.”
Then I turned to Tara.
“And Sophie knew enough to worry but not enough to understand. Silence didn’t protect either of them.”
I faced the children, and my voice softened.
“You two aren’t supposed to carry the grown-up part of this. That’s their job.”
