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“I was supposed to have been asleep hours ago, but when I heard the shouting and the door sla In bare feet, I ran down the hall toward ainst the door because they were talking loud enough to be heard through the closed door”

He paused as he gathered his thoughts Part of him wanted to stop here—to shove away thehim most of his life—but the other part of him needed to say this—to put it out into the universe

He drew in a deep breath, trying to calm his insides And then, ever so slowly, he blew out the breath “I heard my mother say she needed to tell us that ical father of us all Some of the words were muffled with her sobs But then uilty she felt” Enzo paused, struggling to keep his emotions in check “My father told her she couldn’t tell us—that ere too young to understand And then she er But my father said it wasn’t fair to tell me a secret that I couldn’t tell my sisters”

Sylvie reached out, placing her hand on his arave hith to finish

“I’ to make sense of what I’d just heard My mother had an affair And at the tiitimate child Why else would she have mentioned my name?”

“It must have been such a shock”

He nodded “My ”

“Did you approach your parents?”

He shook his head “I went to bed that night and eventually I fell asleep In thea kid, I was able to convince myself that it was just a dream But deep inside I kneas so much more than a dream”

“And so all of these years you’ve been dealing with that on your own? Without being able to talk to anyone?”

“But it isn’t about me It’s about s—to speak up But I should have said so”

“You were just a kid That’s a lot to handle”

He raked his fingers through his hair once er at his lack of courage twisted his gut up in a knot “I can’t hide behind that excuse I had a chance to speak up when my sisters found that journal And yet, I kept the awful secret to myself I didn’t think of hoould eat at the”

Sylvie’s hand slid down his arers brushed over his pal up his arers slipped between his as she squeezed

his hand