My stomach dropped.
Howard frowned. “I told everyone I fell.”
“Right.” Jasper nodded quickly. “You were riding your scooter. I was outside. You lost your balance. Freak accident. That’s what we tell Mom.”
“But Dad, I don’t want to lie to Mom.”
My heart broke right then and there.
“I told everyone I fell.”
“We have to, okay?” Jasper’s voice took on a sharp, impatient edge. “Your mom can’t know I wasn’t there. She’ll flip out, and you know how she gets.”
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I felt a surge of rage. Jasper wasn’t there? Then where was he?
“But why?” Howard asked. “You just went to the store, and Kelly was there…”
The woman, Kelly, shifted uncomfortably. “Your mom isn’t supposed to know about me yet, remember? We talked about this, Howard.”
“Your mom can’t know I wasn’t there.”
Jasper lowered his voice. “We’ll tell her when the time is right. And when that happens, we don’t need your mom making assumptions because of this accident.”
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“But… I was the one who tried doing that trick,” Howard said, his voice rising slightly. “Kelly wasn’t even watching me when I did it. She was inside, fetching her phone.”
Kelly stepped closer to the bed. “I was inside for a few seconds. You were fine. You should’ve been fine.”
“We’ll tell her when the time is right.”
Jasper waved his hands as if to dismiss the whole thing. “This is exactly what we’re trying to avoid, kiddo. We’re keeping things simple. That means you don’t say I wasn’t there. You don’t say Kelly stepped inside for a few minutes. And you don’t say you were trying a trick. Okay? We stick to the story.”
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I felt dizzy, like the room was spinning.
He wasn’t even there. He left our son with a woman I didn’t even know existed, and now they were coaching a ten-year-old to lie so they could protect themselves.
“We’re keeping things simple.”
“Okay,” Howard whispered.
Jasper stood and patted Howard’s shoulder. “Get some sleep, champ.”
Kelly leaned over and gave a tight smile. “You’re very brave.”
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