Chapter 4

That night, I sat in my room, the Zippo in my hand. It was cool and smooth. I was supposed to give it to my mother. A keepsake. A final goodbye from Chicago.

I flicked it open. The flame jumped to life, steady and bright.

Before I closed it, I saw something.

Inside the lid, where the felt pad was, a tiny corner of paper was sticking out.

My fingers trembled as I used a pin from my desk to pry it out. It was a note, folded into a tiny, tight square.

I carefully unfolded it. The handwriting was Connor's. The words were not for a sister-in-law.

They were for a lover.

Bella,

Fifteen years. Every single day. It was always you.

I'm leaving tomorrow at noon. The old place by the pier. The one you told me about. I'll wait for you. For both of you. We can disappear. Start over. Just say yes.

I love you.

C.

I read it again. And again.

He was going to take her away.

He was going to take my mother away from me.

A cold, selfish fear gripped me. She was all I had. The only person in this house of monsters who was truly mine. If she left, I would be completely alone. Abandoned to my father, to Sean, to this life I hated.

She wouldn't leave me. She couldn't.

But the image of her in Connor's arms flashed in my mind. The look on her face. The sound of her laughter.

She would go.

Driven by a panic I couldn't control, I held the note over the Zippo's flame.

The paper curled, turned black, and vanished into ash.

I sat there for a long time, the smell of smoke in my room. Then I closed the lighter, wiped my sweaty palms on my pants, and walked to her bungalow.

I gave her the Zippo.

"Connor asked me to give you this," I said, my voice flat. "He said it was from Chicago."

She took it, her fingers tracing the engraved "C." A sad, gentle smile touched her lips.

"A keepsake," she whispered, her eyes misty. "A final goodbye."

She thought it was over. She thought he was just leaving. She had no idea he was waiting for her.

The next day, I watched from my window. Noon came and went. Connor's muscle car was gone.

He had waited. She never came.

He left for the Rust Belt, his heart broken by a choice she never knew she had.

And I, her son, had made that choice for her.