Chapter 8 - LEO FINALLY ASKED THE QUESTION DOMINIC FEARED MOST
He was eight.
Two years had passed.
Lily was five.
They were still inseparable.
One Sunday afternoon, Leo asked:
“Dad, did Mom want to leave you?”
Silence.
Dominic looked at me.
I was sitting across the living room.
This was not my answer.
Dr. Feldman had prepared him for this possibility.
Dominic put down his coffee.
“Yes.”
Leo’s face changed.
“Why?”
“Because she was unhappy with parts of our life.”
“With me?”
“No.”
Immediate.
“Never you.”
“With you?”
Dominic swallowed.
“Yes.”
Children deserve truth sized for children.
Leo continued:
“Were you bad?”
Dominic thought.
“I made bad choices.”
“What choices?”
“I worked too much.”
“I let other people make family decisions I should have made.”
“I scared people without realizing it.”
“I thought paying for everything meant I was taking care of everyone.”
Leo considered.
“Did you yell?”
“Sometimes.”
“Hit Mom?”
“No.”
Good.
No manufactured abuse.
“Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why wasn’t that enough?”
The question hit everyone.
Dominic answered slowly.
“Because love is something you feel.”
“Being a good husband is also something you do.”
I looked away.
Damn.
Leo absorbed it.
Then:
“Would she still leave now?”
Dominic’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
Correct.
Then:
“I hope she’d see I listened.”
Leo nodded.
“Okay.”
He went back to building Legos.
Children destroy adults then return to toys.
That night Dominic said:
“I hated that question.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to tell him she would stay.”
“I know.”
“But I don’t know.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Would you?”
Dangerous.
“Would I what?”
“Stay.”
I thought.
“With who you are now?”
“Yes.”
“Probably.”
His eyebrow moved.
“Probably?”
“Do not become comfortable.”
He smiled.
Good.
Then:
“Isabella.”
“What?”
“Move in.”
I stared.
“No.”
He sighed.
“Why?”
“Lily’s school.”
“We’re twenty minutes away.”
“My apartment is mine.”
“We can keep it.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“You want to pay for an empty apartment?”
“I own empty buildings.”
“Not helping.”
We compromised.
I kept the apartment for another year.
Spent more nights at the estate gradually.
Lily received her own room.
Not princess nonsense.
She chose yellow walls and dinosaur curtains.
Dominic hated them.
Perfect.
Then one morning I found Leo and Lily in the kitchen.
Soap everywhere.
Again.
I froze.
Dominic walked in behind me.
Leo froze too.
Old reflex.
For one second, the entire past stood in the room.
Then Dominic looked at the bubbles.
At Leo.
At Lily.
And said:
“Clean it before breakfast.”
Leo blinked.
“That’s it?”
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
“You were expecting applause?”
Lily whispered:
“Maybe.”
Dominic left.
Leo started laughing.
Not cautious.
Not small.
Full laugh.
Dominic stopped in the hallway.
I saw his shoulders shake.
He was crying.
But he did not hide in the study this time.
He turned around.
Walked back.
And laughed with them.
That was the real recovery.
May you like
Not forgetting fear.
Learning what happens after it arrives.
