“Five minutes to tell her the truth, or I will.”
“Ryan, please.”
“She deserves to hear it from her mother,” he said. “But she deserves to hear it tonight.”
Iris came back holding a glass of water.
She stopped in the doorway. “Why does it feel like I walked into the middle of something?”
Ryan took the glass from her, but he did not drink.
“Because you did.”
Iris looked at me. “Mom?”
“Ryan, please.”
***
I wanted to lie, but Ryan was right.
She was the only one in the room who did not know who she was.
“Anthony is your father,” I said. “Tony, I mean. You met him tonight.”
The glass slipped from Ryan’s hand and shattered on the floor.
Iris stared at me. “No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. My father left. Mom, that’s the truth. Right?”
“Anthony is your father.”
“That’s what I told you.”
“You told me he didn’t want me. You told me he walked away because having a kid was too much.”
I gripped the back of the chair. “He did walk away sometimes, but not the way I let you believe, baby.”
Her face changed. “What does that mean?”
“Our divorce was ugly. He worked out of state, missed weekends, and broke promises.”
“So you lied?”
“What does that mean?”
“I thought I was making it simpler.”
“For who?” Iris asked.
I could not answer fast enough.
She nodded once, as if that silence told her everything. “Did he try to see me?”
“Yes.”
Her mouth trembled. “And you stopped him?”
“For who?”
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