“Our brother?”
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Rowan lowered his eyes.
“I didn’t come here to take anything from you.”
Riley stepped closer, visibly restraining himself from immediately throwing his arms around him.
“You’re not taking anything.”
Rowan’s jaw trembled.
“I spent my whole life thinking I was the one nobody could keep.”
“No,” I said. “That was never true.”
Mom began crying.
“You were falling apart, Dawn. Two babies at home, bills, machines, no sleep. I arranged the funeral because you couldn’t look at the tiny coffin.”
My stomach turned.
“You told me not to,” I said.
“I wanted you to remember him happy. Not like that.”
“You put his framed baby picture on a sealed coffin and said Rowan was too fragile to view. But it was empty.”
“I was protecting you.”
“No. You were hiding what you’d done.”
Watson wiped his face.
