Chapter 3 - Ethan Thought Tyler Was Supposed To Replace Him
That evening Amanda took Ethan to his pediatrician.
His physical injuries were minor.
The emotional ones were not.
The doctor documented the redness on his shoulder and upper arm and asked, gently, how it happened. Ethan refused to speak at first. He stayed pressed against Amanda’s side, fingers wrapped around her blouse.
Eventually he whispered:
“Tyler says Dad likes big boys better.”
Amanda’s eyes filled.
The pediatrician waited.
Ethan continued in fragments.
Tyler took his toys when Richard was home.
Tyler sat in Ethan’s usual seat at breakfast.
Tyler went into Ethan’s bedroom without asking.
When Ethan complained, Richard told him to “stop whining.”
Once Tyler pushed over Ethan’s train set, and Richard made Ethan clean it up because “guests don’t need drama.”
Guests.
That was what Richard called them when Ethan objected.
But Brooke apparently used different language.
“She said Tyler gets to practice living here,” Ethan whispered.
Amanda felt sick.
“Practice?”
Ethan nodded.
“Because someday he might be Dad’s boy too.”
The pediatrician looked at Amanda.
Amanda looked away.
There were several possible meanings to a statement like that.
None were good.
Then Ethan said something worse.
“Tyler said I’m the baby Dad got stuck with.”
Amanda closed her eyes.
No four-year-old invented that kind of hierarchy by himself.
Someone had created it around him.
Maybe Tyler repeated what he heard from Brooke.
Maybe from Richard.
Maybe both.
Whatever the source, Ethan had been living in his own home believing his father might eventually choose another boy over him.
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And Amanda had been flying across the country negotiating contracts, believing her son was safe with the man who helped create that fear.
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