Chapter 3

She quickly clutched her collar tight.

"Sis, don't get the wrong idea. Otis was worried I'd have trouble with the jet lag, so he told me to sleep in the master bedroom."

Otis explained too.

"I slept on the couch last night. Don't read into it."

The arguing woke my mother and Reginald.

Reginald's face went cold. "My daughter's finally home. So what if she slept in your room?"

My mother grabbed hold of me too.

"It's just a room. Do you really have to make everyone miserable over it?"

I shook her off and walked over to the safe.

Beside it sat a pile of clothes Joy had changed out of.

I reached out to push them aside, and two torn-open square wrappers suddenly dropped by my feet.

My eyes reddened instantly.

Otis's expression shifted, and he rushed to explain.

"It's not what you think."

"Joy had a late-night snack. Those are the wrappers from the disposable gloves she used. You know how packaging is these days, it's all pretty…"

I said nothing, just bit down hard on my lip, forcing my trembling hands still.

I kicked the wrappers away, crouched, opened the safe, and took out the household registration and Joe's documents.

Seeing my silence, Otis spoke up, a little awkwardly.

"Where's Joe? Why didn't he come back with you?"

I slammed the safe door shut and looked past him, straight at my mother.

"Only now do you think to ask about Joe?! Then why don't you ask my mother instead!"

"Ask her why she didn't tell you?"

"Joe is only six years old, and you put him on a roller coaster that requires riders to be at least ten."

"The child fell from up there. They spent the whole night trying to save him, and he's still lying in the ICU right now!"

Otis went white.

"The ICU? How could Joe end up in the ICU?"

My mother guiltily looked away.

"He's a kid, he took a little fall. How serious could it be?"

"I didn't tell Otis because I didn't want everyone worrying and ruining Joy's welcome-home dinner."

My son was lying in the ICU with tubes in him.

And in her mouth, it was nothing but a small injury that couldn't be allowed to hold up Joy's welcome-home dinner.

Otis hurried toward me.

"I didn't know it was this serious. I'll go to the hospital with you."

I looked at him, cold.

"The staff warned you. Children under ten aren't allowed on that ride."

"But you don't even know how old your own son is, and you didn't so much as listen to the warning. You just wanted to shove him onto some long ride so you could slip away and go buy ice cream with Joy."

Otis's face drained of color, and his mouth opened.

But I gave him no chance to explain.

"Otis, if you care about Joy so much that you'd neglect your own flesh-and-blood son, then why did you marry me in the first place?"

"You were the one who chose me. Yet all these years, everyone's acted like I stole you away, like I owed Joy something."

"Whatever she wanted, I had to give up."

"And now, for the sake of keeping her company, you'd even throw away your own son's life."

I stared him down.

"If anything happens to Joe, I won't let you off. And I won't let Joy off either."

Otis's face was full of shock.

"Eudora, don't take it too far!"

"Joy and I are perfectly innocent. Ever since we were kids, I've always looked after her like a little sister."

"How does that turn into some shameful affair the moment it comes out of your mouth?"

Reginald's face darkened at once.

"Otis and Joy grew up together. Their bond has always been this close."

"He looked after Joy for over a decade. Are you saying that just because he later married you, the two of them can't even have normal contact anymore?"

"Who do you think you are, to have any right to force them to cut ties?"

My mother glared at me with disgust too.

"How well Otis treated Joy back then, everyone saw it with their own eyes."