Chapter 11
Gregory asked to see Theo.
I said no.
Then corrected myself.
“Theo decides.”
Gregory looked offended.
“He’s seven.”
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t understand.”
“Neither did you when you decided his life five years ago.”
That ended the argument.
I asked Theo privately.
“Gregory wants to talk.”
Theo shook his head immediately.
“No.”
“Okay.”
He blinked.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t make?”
“No.”
His face changed.
Something tiny.
Trust, maybe.
Or confusion.
Later he asked:
“What he want?”
“To talk.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
Theo looked at his injured leg.
“Is he mad I came here?”
Probably.
But truth mattered.
“He may be scared.”
“Why?”
“Because people found out what he did.”
Theo thought.
“Will he hit me?”
“No.”
Absolute.
That one I could give.
“Never again?”
I looked him in the eyes.
“Not while I’m alive.”
Maybe too dramatic.
Still true.
Theo nodded.
Then asked:
“Are you scary?”
Clara nearly choked across the room.
I stared at him.
“Sometimes.”
“Gregory says you kill people.”
Clara went very still.
I did not lie.
“I have hurt dangerous people.”
Theo considered that.
“Will you hurt him?”
Hard question.
“No.”
His eyebrows rose.
“Why?”
“Because keeping you safe matters more than making him afraid.”
That answer surprised me too.
May you like
Five years earlier, I might have chosen differently.
Maybe Theo’s return was already changing the meaning of strength inside me.
