Chapter 13 - Savannah Told Me What She Planned to Tell the Twins
Savannah contacted me nearly three years after the reception.
I almost ignored the message.
Then I read it.
Noah and Miles are starting to ask why Dad doesn’t live with us.
Someday they’ll ask about how we started.
I want to make sure I never use you as an excuse.
That got my attention.
We spoke by phone.
She sounded older.
So did I, probably.
“What are you planning to tell them?”
“The truth at the level they can understand.”
Good.
“Which truth?”
“That their dad and I made choices that hurt another person.”
I went quiet.
“And that you didn’t cause our family to separate.”
That mattered.
Savannah continued.
“I don’t want them growing up hearing that you were the wife who wouldn’t let him go.”
I almost laughed.
Ethan had apparently stopped using that story too.
“He doesn’t say that anymore,” Savannah added.
“Good.”
Then she asked:
“If they ever want to know who you are?”
I thought carefully.
“I’m not part of their family.”
“I know.”
“But I’m not a secret either.”
Exactly.
No mythology.
No villain.
No ghost.
Just a woman who was once married to their father when choices were made.
Savannah exhaled.
“Thank you.”
Before hanging up, I asked:
“Are you happy?”
The question surprised both of us.
She thought.
“Yes.”
“With someone?”
“No.”
She laughed.
“Why does everyone think happiness needs a witness?”
Fair.
“How are the boys?”
“Chaos.”
I smiled.
“Good.”
After the call, I realized something.
For years, I had thought Savannah represented the life Ethan chose instead of mine.
But she had not received that life either.
Because it never actually existed.
The fantasy depended on secrecy.
Once exposed, it could not support anyone.
She built something different.
May you like
So did I.
That was better than either of us spending years trying to win an imaginary competition.
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