Don't Give Me Tainted Love novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Who Stayed

I took the stairs two at a time and picked my son up before the officers had Bradley through the front door.

Eric put his arms around my neck and his cast against my ribs.

"Dad. Why were they holding Uncle Bradley's arms?"

"Let's talk upstairs, buddy."

I carried him into my mother's sitting room and shut the door on the noise.

Melanie came in behind us.

She had taken off her shoes somewhere, and her hair was coming down, and she sat on the floor beside the couch where I had put him.

Eric looked from one of us to the other.

"Is it bad?" he asked.

"It's a hard thing," Melanie said. "But you're not in trouble. You never were."

"Okay."

He picked at his blanket.

"I have to tell you something," he said. "I told Dad in the hospital I saw Uncle Bradley at the gate. But I didn't say all of it."

I sat down on his other side.

"Tell us all of it," I said.

"He crouched down. He said, 'Hey, Eric, you know I'm your real dad, right?'" He swallowed. "He said Mom stole me and I should come on a trip with him in his car. He said you didn't want me."

Melanie made a sound.

I put my hand over hers on the blanket.

"What did you do?" I said.

"I said no. And he grabbed my backpack." His chin wobbled. "Mom said if I ever see him alone, run. So I ran. But the gate was the wrong way. I ran toward the road."

"Buddy."

"I didn't look. I'm supposed to look." He was crying now, in big silent drops. "That's why I was on my bike. I got on it to go faster, and then the van."

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