But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true.
Because something had happened.
And it wasn’t going to be undone so easily.
Marcus stayed by my side, silent, looking towards the open house, as if he were still measuring what remained to be done.
“The police should be arriving soon,” he finally said, without taking his eyes off the road.
I nodded, although I didn’t look towards the street.
She just stared at Ethan.
His arm hung in an odd way, and every time he tried to move, his face twitched in a gesture he was trying to suppress.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” I said. “Now.”
Marcus hesitated for a second.
“If you leave…” he began.
I knew what finishing that sentence entailed.
Leaving meant leaving behind everything that had just happened, without confronting it immediately.
But staying… meant something different.
A little heavier.
I looked at the open door again.
Dark.
Silent.
As if it were hiding a version of the truth that wasn’t yet ready to come out.
“I’m leaving,” I said finally. “He comes first.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
He didn’t seem to completely agree, but he didn’t argue with it either.
“I’m staying,” he added. “When the police arrive, I’ll talk to them.”
That decision fell upon us with a silent weight.
Because it meant that someone would have to say it all out loud.
And that part was never easy.
I got into the car with Ethan in my arms, carefully placing him in the back seat as he squeezed my hand tightly.
“Don’t leave me,” she whispered.
“I won’t,” I replied, closing the door gently. “I’m here.”
As I drove toward the hospital, every traffic light, every turn, seemed to occur within a kind of fog.
Ethan remained silent for most of the way, breathing slowly, as if he feared that any sound would make things worse.
“Dad…” he said suddenly. “Did I misbehave?”
The question came without warning, small, but devastating.
I felt something tighten inside my chest.
“No,” I replied immediately. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But he said yes,” she insisted, staring out the window without really seeing anything. “That I… that I made him angry.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter, but kept my voice soft.
“That’s not true,” I said. “Sometimes adults say things that aren’t right.”
Silence returned.
But this time it wasn’t empty.
It was a thought.
We arrived at the hospital and everything became a flurry of activity: nurses, questions, white lights, hands examining carefully.
The diagnosis came in simple words: fracture.
Nothing irreversible, they said.
But enough to leave a mark.
While they were putting the cast on him, Ethan kept looking at me, as if making sure he wasn’t going to disappear again.
I didn’t do it.
I didn’t move from his side.
Hours later, when they finally let us go, night had already fallen, and the city seemed quieter, almost indifferent.
Marcus called me just as we were leaving the hospital.
—I already spoke with them —he said—.
I didn’t ask who.
It wasn’t necessary.
-AND?
There was a brief pause.
“They’re going to investigate,” he replied. “Lena arrived too.”
That name carried a different weight.
More complex.
—What did he say?
“Nothing at first,” he replied. “Then… he said he didn’t know it was like that.”
That phrase felt familiar.
Too familiar.
Like a more elaborate version of “it was nothing”.
“Do you believe him?” I asked.
Marcus did not respond immediately.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “But now what I believe doesn’t matter. What matters is what I do.”
I looked at Ethan, asleep in the seat, his arm immobilized, his breathing finally calm.
—Yes —I whispered—.
We didn’t go home that night.
We stayed at Marcus’s house.
A simple place, without too many things, but full of a calm that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Ethan slept soundly, as if his body had decided to let go of everything at once.
I don’t.
.webp)
I sat in the living room, in silence, going over every detail, every sign that I didn’t want to see before.
The excuses.
The awkward pauses.
The small changes in Ethan that I attributed to other things.
Everything was there.
I just didn’t want to put it together.
Not until now.
The next morning, Lena called.
I didn’t answer immediately.
The phone vibrated several times before he finally picked it up.
“How are you?” he asked, without saying hello.
“His arm is broken,” I replied. “He’s okay… all things considered.”
Silence.
“I didn’t know Kyle…” she began.
I interrupted her gently.
—Now you know.
Another pause.
Longer.
“I want to see it,” he said.
