Page 18 of The Locksmith's Promise

Except it wasn’t.

The past had risen, and that fucker was trying to swallow me whole.

No matter how I looked at it, my first day back was a banger.

6

Revelation

Maggie

Sunday morning, I woke up hours earlier than usual. On my second cup of coffee, I braced my bare feet on the coffee table and looked at my painted toes.

My one vice.

What colour would I choose today?

I stared out the window and watched the sky lighten with the new day.

Corwin had been uncharacteristically silent since coming home yesterday. At first, he ventured a few questions, but when I told him I needed to think, he backed off.

His bedroom door creaked open.

Sandy hair standing on end, curious eyes intent on my face, my time of reckoning had come.

I cupped my hands around my sturdy, handmade mug full of life-sustaining coffee and smiled. “Good morning, honey.”

“Hi Momma,” he mumbled as he padded barefoot across the old-fashioned parquet floor.

With the dropping of the temperature, I’d pulled out his winter pyjamas. The pants that dragged along the floor last year now flapped around his skinny ankles.

He looked more and more like Baxter with every passing year. One day, God willing, he’d grow to be just as tall and strong.

And kind.

Despite Baxter’s father and the sharp turn his life took at the age of ten, he had always been unfailingly kind.

Increasingly wild as the years rolled on and his father’s abuse worsened, but good to his soul.

I fell in love with him long before I got boobs, but I never told him.

All through high school, if Baxter wasn’t with me, which wasn’t often, he was down by the docks smoking pot with Jenny Davis. Not that I ever went looking for him down there. Catching him with his tongue down her throat once was one time too many.

It still didn’t bear thinking about.

But even then, when his life was a mess, it was his kindness that drew me in, his kindness that earned my trust, and it was my complete trust that made his ultimate betrayal so utterly unbearable.

And unforgettable.

Was Corwin ready for this revelation?

The story I’d planned to finish telling him since deciding to move back to Moose Lake suddenly seemed a terrible idea. I thought I’d have more time to get in touch with Baxter and ask him if he wanted to know his son.

Explain to Corwin that people sometimes needed time to heal before becoming parents.

I’d planned to be gracious. Not only because I wanted Corwin to know the best of his father, but because Baxter had been handed a raw deal and deserved a little grace.

All my self-indulgent planning amounted to nothing because it was based on a lie. No matter how unbelievable it seemed, Baxter hadn’t known about Corwin.

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