Chapter 4 - Bethany's Version
Bethany agreed to meet that afternoon at Rooke Street Coffee.
I dropped the boys at Pam's again. Normally I'd have recited every feeding time and quirk before I could make myself walk away. This time I just set the formula on the counter.
"Call if you need me."
She smiled. "I've got them, Corinne."
A week earlier, that sentence would have made me anxious the entire drive. That day, I just went.
Bethany was already at a table in the back corner, looking about as comfortable as I felt.
"I'm so sorry," she said before I even sat down.
"I don't need an apology yet. I need facts."
She nodded.
"When did Daniel find out?"
"About a year and a half ago."
"Did he know before that?"
"No. I raised Ivy on my own. I was okay doing it for years. Then she started asking about her father, and I couldn't keep dodging it."
I believed her.
"How often does he see her?"
She looked down into her cup.
I waited.
"Usually once a week."
I leaned back.
"Was the drawing recent?"
"She made it Saturday."
Three days before the accident. Saturday — the day Daniel told me he was helping a guy from work move a couch.
"And she knows about Jasper and Eli."
Bethany's face softened. "Yes."
"Knows what, exactly?"
"Daniel talks about them constantly. She calls them her brothers."
"Has she met them?"
"No."
That landed harder than I expected.
"Daniel told her she'd meet them when the time was right. He said he had to talk to you first."
I laughed, once, with nothing behind it. "He had eighteen months to talk to me."
Bethany didn't try to defend him. I was grateful for that.
"Did you ever ask why I wasn't part of any of this?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"That IVF had been brutal on you. Then you got pregnant. Then the boys came and you were running on empty."
Another reason. Another version of shielding me without ever once asking whether I wanted to be shielded.
She lowered her voice. "Ivy doesn't know any of this has been a secret."
"I figured."
"She thinks you know about her. She knows you're Daniel's wife, she knows you're the twins' mom, and she believes you already know she exists. She thinks she's part of the plan."
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For one ugly second, I wished Ivy had never drawn that picture.
Then I corrected the thought. Not Ivy. The secret.
