16.

 

Sadie put a spoonful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth and let the cool sweetness melt on her tongue.

"So," Kevin said, interrupting her perfect ice cream moment, "what did you want to tell me?"

She put another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and closed her eyes, letting the taste wash over her one last time before speaking. "You know how Marcus killed the tree out back, and then brought it back to life again?"

"It might have seemed like that then, but the more time passes, the more I think that wasn't what happened at all."

"I was there."

"I know, but we can't always believe what we think we see."

"Other things have happened too that I haven't told you about."

"Like what?" Kevin asked.

Sadie looked up at her reflection in the dark kitchen window. "I need to tell you what happened at Gloria's."

"Oh yeah, how is Jay? What kind of problems was she having with him?"

"Marcus isn't biologically ours." Sadie said the words quickly half hoping that just saying them would make them mean less.

"What are you saying?" Kevin put his spoon down in his bowl.

"I found him. Well, really Gloria did. She found two babies―twins―in an alley on her way home from work six years ago."

"But you were pregnant, weren't you? What happened to our baby?"

"I wasn't really pregnant. I mean, it seemed like I was, but it was what they call a false pregnancy. My body acted like it was pregnant even though it really wasn't."

Kevin rubbed his forehead silently for a moment, then looked up at Sadie. "I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"Gloria found twin babies one day and she brought them home. We decided to raise them as our own. I named mine Marcus and she named hers Jay." Sadie spoke slowly.

"You were never pregnant?" Kevin said.

"No, I wasn't."

"And Marcus and Gloria's son, Jay, are brothers that Gloria found in an alley one day."

Sadie nodded.

Kevin stood up. He looked around the room like it was a strange place he didn't recognize. "So basically you stole him, and you lied to me for six years."

Sadie never really thought of what she did as lying. She knew it was untruthful somewhere deep down, but she always thought it was for the best. She was making a family. All she ever really wanted was a family―the perfect family. She was willing to do anything to have one. "I wasn't lying."

"Sadie, how can you say you weren't lying? You stole a baby, and then you told me that he was ours." He seemed more hurt than angry.

Sadie couldn't bear to look at him. She looked down at the table instead. Her ice cream had already started to melt in the bowl. "I didn't steal a baby. I saved him. I saved his life, and he was mine as soon as I held him. He was ours as soon as I brought him home. Didn't he feel like yours?"

He sank back into his chair and put his head in his hands. "How could you have lied about something like this? How could you have lied to me for so long? I trusted you. I've trusted you with everything." He looked up at her.

"I know, and you can still trust me. I'm your wife."

"Can I?" he asked. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"I'm telling you now because Jay brought a dead mouse back to life in the park."

"You saw that?"

"No, but Gloria told me and based on what I've seen from Marcus I believe her."

"What you've seen from Marcus?"

Sadie couldn't believe he was asking her that. "The tree ... " She considered telling him about the grasshopper and the levitating blocks, but decided against it for now.

Kevin nodded slowly. "Does Marcus know?"

"Know what? That Jay is his brother? No. We didn't tell them anything, but maybe we need to find a way to look into his background. We don't know how yet, but we should find out something about where they are from."

Kevin narrowed his eyes at her. "Then what?"

"I don't know. Maybe we can get some answers about what's going on with them."

He stood up again and walked toward the kitchen door.

"Where are you going?" Sadie asked.

"Out. I have to be alone for a minute to think." He disappeared into the living room.

Sadie could hear the sound of him putting on his shoes, the jingle of the keys as he picked them up, the front door opening and closing behind him. She sat there listening. The car started outside. The tires rolled down the street as he drove away. She waited, sitting on the hard kitchen chair for him to come home while the ice cream turned into brown puddles in their bowls.