The Night I Gave My Best Friend's Brother a Child novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Let Me Explain

"Don't," I said.

Bridget stopped with one hand out.

"Effie," I called, without taking my eyes off her. "Take Gerald and the tablet to the living room, baby. Mama's talking with Aunt Bridget."

"Is the treasure a secret?" Effie asked.

"Yes."

"Okay." She slid off her chair, and a moment later cartoon music started in the next room.

I held up the yellow sheet.

"You found this in my coat."

"Yes."

"You knew whose number it was."

Bridget put the spatula down on the counter very carefully.

"I've known that number since I was twenty-three," she said. "It was on every form I ever filled out for him. When I saw it, Bailey, I just stood there in your closet and thought, no."

"No what?"

"No, it can't be." Her voice shook. "You were five months pregnant, and broke, and sleeping in my spare room. Rhett was about to leave for a year. I didn't know if he would come back. I didn't know if you'd want him to."

"You didn't know."

"I panicked!" She pressed her palm to her forehead. "I told myself I'd tell you in a week. Then you went into labor, and I thought, not today. Then Effie turned one. Then she was two, and it was impossible, and I'd been carrying it so long I..."

"You kept his phone."

Bridget flinched.

"Charged, in a drawer," I said. "So you could erase me."

"I never erased anything. I just never listened."

"Twice, Bridget. I called twice."

"I know."

"I stood on a bathroom floor, and I said my name into a machine, and it went into your dresser."

She was crying now.

It came easily.

I watched it come and found that it did not move me at all.

"I was protecting you," she said. "You didn't know him. He's a soldier. He could have died. I didn't want you to be a widow with a baby."

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