Page 189 of One Big Little Secret

“I can’t leave him, Patton. I can’t—”

“I know. I’m not asking you to. Let me do it.” I will rip the world apart piece by piece to get to the bottom of this. “I’ll call my mom. She’ll—”

Salem grabs my arm and pushes it away from my pocket.

“No.” Her voice is tight. “Don’t call her.”

Huh? I’m officially going to lose my shit.

“Sweetheart,” I say, freeing myself from her grip. “She needs to know. She can be here with you while I figure out what happened.”

“We were over there for brunch.”

My heart stalls.

“You were?” My eyes narrow. “But so what?”

“I just don’t want your mom worrying about it or thinkingshehad anything to do with this. That’s impossible.”

“It’s her grandkid, Salem. Even if she doesn’t know it.” Even if Arlo doesn’t know, either. “Please. I need to tell her.”

Salem paces away from me, her shoulders hunched, and I grab my phone. Then she turns, her mouth hard. “So you’re going to call her anyway?”

“I don’t have a choice,” I bite out. “Hell, if anything, that’s where I need to go. What if he got into something at her house?”

“Butwhat? He was with us the whole time!” she hisses.

“I don’t fucking know. A plant, a chemical, something.” I’m no expert on poisons, that’s for sure.

But there must be something.

“He wasn’t anywhere near any plants. He was with us in the room the whole time and he had the same cake we ate!” Her voice is so urgent and she wraps her fingers around my arm as she pleads. “Please don’t. You can’t tell her.”

“Why? Because she doesn’t know Arlo’s mine?” I shake her off. Now isn’t the time and place to argue about that, but I can’t just sit here and wait. “This is bullshit, Salem, and you know it. You need support, and I need answers.”

This is the worst time in my existence to start an argument, but if I stay here, I’m going to go insane. “Listen, I can’t just sit around and do nothing.”

“Staying with me isn’t nothing.” She takes my hand, her fingers so tight. “Please, Patton. Stay.”

God fucking damn.

If they were with Mom, that means there’s something at the house. Whatever happened wasn’t deliberate, I’m sure, but the sooner we figure it out, the faster we can fix this.

If something nasty jumps out and I can just tell the doctors—

Hell, maybe there’s an antidote or something if I can just find out what caused this.

“I need to go,” I say, “and I need you to understand.”

“Idon’tunderstand. He didn’t go near anything poisonous.”

Clearly, he did if he was poisoned. My jaw tightens as I hold in a hundred stinging emotions I can’t release. Not without making this worse.

She stares at me, her long eyelashes clumped and her mouth quivering. I don’t know what any of this means for our relationship if I walk out right now.

But I can’t stay while my son’s life is on the line and we’re fighting in the dark.

I hate that she doesn’t want me to find out what happened.

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