“Nothing.”S
“Karen heard what you said.”
His fingers stopped on the keyboard.
“It’s nothing, Mom.”
For one second, his expression opened.
He might have told me.
Then he looked at my face.
And whatever he saw made him close again.
That night, while Lucas was showering, his phone lit up on the kitchen counter.
A message appeared.
Are you still doing it?
Then his reply.
Tomorrow.
I read it three times.
Tomorrow.
Suddenly, every fear I had built over the summer seemed real.
When Lucas came downstairs, I was waiting at the kitchen table with his phone between us.
“Sit down.”
His expression changed immediately.
“Mom.”
“I saw the message.”
He stared at the phone.
“Someone asked whether you were still doing something. You said tomorrow. What are you doing?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It is absolutely not nothing.”
I started listing everything.
The laptop.
The late nights.
Ava.
Tyler.
The comment in the hallway.
“What am I supposed to think?”
Lucas stared at me.
Then he said something I still hear clearly.
“Tell me.”
“What?”
“Tell me what you think I’m doing.”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because every theory that had seemed so convincing inside my head sounded ridiculous when I tried to say it aloud.
“I think someone is manipulating you,” I finally said. “I think you’re getting pulled into something that could ruin your life.”
“Stop.”
“Lucas—”
“You never listen.”
“I listen constantly.”
“No. You check.”
His chair scraped backward.
“You ask where I am. You ask what I ate. You ask if homework is done. You ask whether I’m okay.”
“I’m your mother.”
“But none of those are real questions.”
My chest tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you already decide what’s happening before I answer.”
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“You’re not leaving this house.”
His face changed.
And suddenly my imagination showed me everything at once.
A fight at school.
Tyler hurt.
Lucas arrested.
Police lights.
One terrible moment destroying the rest of his life.
Fear took over.
Lucas went upstairs.
His bedroom door had an old lock that could only be opened with a key from the hallway.
Once locked, there was no way to open it from inside.
I waited until he entered his room.
Then I pulled the door shut.
And turned the key.
