The message continued.
“Andrew wanted to stay with you. He wanted to raise Leo. He even planned to take a job after graduation and rent an apartment so you three could be together.”
My eyes filled with tears.
Three of us.
That was the future I had dreamed about.
The future I thought only I wanted.
But then came the sentence that broke me.
“He left because someone told him that if he stayed, you and the baby would become targets.”
I covered my mouth.
“No…”
Leo looked away.
He was crying too.
I hated that my son had to discover this.
I hated that after eighteen years of thinking his father didn’t want him, he was now learning something completely different.
I kept scrolling.
“Andrew didn’t disappear because he was a coward. He disappeared because he was given a choice no seventeen-year-old should ever have to make.”
I whispered:
“What choice?”
The next message answered.
“He was told that if he contacted you, if he came back, or if anyone found out where he was, they would use you and Leo to get to him.”
My knees felt weak.
I grabbed the kitchen chair and sat down.
For eighteen years, I had carried anger.
I had carried pain.
I had told myself Andrew walked away because we weren’t important enough.
But what if he walked away because we were the most important thing in his life?
I looked at Leo.
“Did she say where he is now?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation scared me.
“Leo?”
He took a deep breath.
“She said she knows where he is.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
