“Mommy and New Dad Ask Me to Lock My Door”
I kept my voice calm. Every parenting article says not to show panic when your kid drops a bomb on you.
“Liam, who is this man?”
He finally looked up and pointed down the hallway. Toward the bedrooms. Toward our room.
“You know him. He was at the party.”
My heart raced. “Which party? Who are you talking about?”
He answered without hesitation. “Uncle Ethan.”
The name hit me like a punch.
Ethan. My half-brother. My father’s “second family” son. The one from the life my dad chose after he walked out on my mom and me when I was four.
We’ve never been close. We’re related on paper, that’s about it.
And now my five-year-old was telling me Ethan had been coming into my house when I wasn’t home.
“Okay, buddy… when was Uncle Ethan here last?”
Liam squinted, thinking. “Um… Wednesday. And Friday. Before you come back from work.”
He paused, then added, like it was nothing:
“Mommy and new Dad ask me to be a good boy and go inside my bedroom and lock the door.”
He said it so easily. No fear. No confusion.
I forced myself to smile. “Got it, buddy. Thanks for telling me. Let’s keep building, okay?”
I didn’t want him to think he’d done something wrong. He was just telling the truth.
Inside, everything was screaming.
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