Howard frowned, clearly confused. “I told everyone I fell.”
“Right. Exactly right,” Jasper said, nodding quickly. “You were riding your scooter. I was outside. You lost your balance on the driveway. It was a freak accident. That’s what we tell Mom. That’s what we tell everyone. Got it?”
“But Dad, I don’t want to lie to Mom.”
My heart broke right then and there, shattered into a million pieces that I wasn’t sure could ever be put back together.
“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 when she’s worried. This is better for everyone.”
Ezoic
I felt a surge of rage so intense that my hands were actually shaking.
“But why?” Howard asked, his voice rising slightly with the confusion of a child trying to understand adult logic. “You just went to the store, and Kelly was there…”
Kelly shifted uncomfortably. “Your mom isn’t supposed to know about me yet, remember? We talked about this, Howard.”
“We’ll tell her when the time is right,” Jasper said, lowering his voice. “And when that happens, we don’t need your mom making assumptions because of this accident. We don’t need her thinking that this is anything other than what it is—a kid trying a trick and getting hurt.”
“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 only inside for a few seconds. You were fine. You should’ve been fine.”
I felt dizzy. The room seemed to be spinning around me.
“This is exactly what we’re trying to avoid, kiddo,” Jasper said, waving his hands dismissively like he was batting away something unpleasant. “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.”
Howard looked so small in that bed, so burdened by a secret he was being forced to carry.
Ezoic
“Okay,” he whispered.
Jasper stood and patted Howard’s shoulder. “Get some sleep, champ. You’re being very brave.”
Kelly leaned over and gave a tight, uncomfortable smile. “You really are very brave.”
They walked out of the room together, and the screen went back to showing my son, alone and overwhelmed with the weight of keeping an adult’s lie.
The security guard beside me shifted in his chair. “You want me to save that clip?”
“Yes,” I said. My voice sounded strange and distant. “Yes, I absolutely do.”
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