Chapter 3
Richard had always disliked Ethan’s softness.
That was how he said it.
Soft.
As if kindness were a defect.
As if a child crying meant he had failed some invisible test of masculinity.
Ethan loved picture books, dinosaurs, pancakes shaped like stars, and sitting beside Amanda while she worked from home.
He hated loud voices.
He apologized to furniture when he bumped into it.
He once cried because a bird hit the window and Richard laughed for ten straight minutes.
Amanda remembered telling Richard, “He is four.”
Richard answered, “That’s the problem. You keep making excuses.”
Vivian was worse.
She believed children should be corrected before comforted.
She said Amanda held Ethan too much.
Answered him too quickly.
Let him speak too freely.
“He needs discipline,” Vivian would say.
Amanda always replied, “He needs love.”
Richard called that dramatic.
But after Brooke appeared, his words became colder.
Brooke was introduced as an old college friend who “needed help.”
Then a business acquaintance.
Then someone Vivian liked.
Then someone who came over while Amanda was at work.
Then someone who knew where the kitchen glasses were kept.
Amanda had asked Richard about her once.
He smiled without warmth.
“Are you jealous of someone who actually understands me?”
Amanda should have heard the ending inside that sentence.
Now Brooke stood in Amanda’s living room near the baby Vivian held like an heir.
Amanda looked at the infant.
Chloe.
That was what Vivian had called her when Amanda stepped inside.
“Our Chloe.”
Not Brooke’s baby.
Not the baby.
Our Chloe.
Ethan’s arms tightened around Amanda’s neck.
“She said Chloe is good,” he whispered.
Amanda’s heart twisted.
“Who said that?”
“Grandma.”
Vivian stiffened.
Ethan continued, voice tiny.
“She said Chloe doesn’t cry like me.”
Amanda looked at Richard.
He looked away.
That told her enough.
Brooke shifted nervously.
“I didn’t say that.”
Amanda’s eyes moved to her.
“No one asked you.”
The room fell silent.
May you like
For the first time, Brooke looked afraid of Amanda instead of merely uncomfortable.
Read the full story 👉 Richard and Vivian had been comparing Ethan to baby Chloe, teaching a four-year-old that love could be reassigned.
