He reached for her hand.
Emma pulled it under the blanket.
Not because she hated him.
Because she did not want him to see how badly she was shaking.
“I wasn’t protecting you,” she whispered. “I was trying to make it to the delivery without losing our home, our family, or you.”
He promised the locks would be changed before they returned home. He promised nobody would enter her hospital room without permission.
But one question remained.
Why did six people watch?
Why did nobody stop his mother?
Emma closed her eyes.
“Because they weren’t all just watching,” she said.
“Your brother Caleb took my phone and stood between me and the back door.”
That was the moment he realized the dinner was not just about one person losing control.
