After He Gave Her My Kitchen, I Left Him with Nothing novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Offer

Dean did not answer.

His hand stayed on the boy's head, and I watched him notice where it was.

He took it away and put it in his pocket.

"Ricky," Dorothy said. Her voice shook. "Take the frog back out to the yard, honey. Please."

Ricky looked at the grown-ups around the table.

He picked the frog out of the potatoes with two fingers and walked to the door backward, watching us the whole way.

The back door banged shut.

"He's my brother's boy," Dean said.

"He called you Dad."

"Kids pick up words. He misses his father."

"Dean, I have watched you wet that exact piece of hair flat for seven years."

My mother made a small sound.

"Whose son is he?" my father said. He had not sat down, and he did not raise his voice.

Dean looked at his mother.

That told me more than any answer would have.

Joan rose from her chair with both hands on the cloth.

"That's enough," she said. "This is a private family matter, and it will be handled by this family, not shouted across a roast."

"You said it yourself," my mother said. "Six years old. I can count, Joan."

"Nobody asked you to count."

"My daughter did."

Dorothy was crying now, with her hands flat over her mouth.

She did not say that Ricky was his brother's son. I noticed that she did not say it.

Joan turned on me.

"Sign the agreement, Rosalind," she said. "Sign it and nobody has to say another word about any of this, ever. That is the kindest thing anyone is going to offer you."

I picked up the stapled pages.

Dean's shoulders came down a little. Joan's mouth softened.

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