“I should’ve told you,” Ivy said. “I was scared. I was twenty. I had just lost him too.”
“I lost him too, Ivy.”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to add more pain to yours.”
“I needed to know,” I whispered.
“He’s my son,” she said carefully. “I raised him. I won’t let him be pulled between us.”
“I don’t want that,” I replied. “I just want to know him.”
Theo’s stepfather, Mark, joined us. Calm. Protective.
“This can’t become a tug-of-war,” he said.
“It won’t,” I promised. “I just want to be part of his life. Slowly.”
They agreed on boundaries. A counselor. No surprises.
