Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN I THOUGHT HAD LEFT ME
Anna answered my message the next morning.
I kept it simple.
I recently learned my family may have interfered in our relationship years ago. I’m sorry to contact you unexpectedly. You don’t owe me a response. If there’s anything you think I should know, I’m ready to hear it.
She replied four hours later.
Call me tonight.
Her voice sounded almost exactly the same.
Older, obviously.
Calmer.
But the same dry edge I remembered.
“You finally figured it out?”
That hurt.
“Apparently not quickly.”
Anna sighed.
“Ethan, I didn’t leave because your mother didn’t like me.”
“I thought you did.”
“I left because she wouldn’t leave me alone.”
I sat down.
“What did she do?”
Anna started listing things.
Diane invited her to lunches without telling me.
Asked whether she planned to stay home with children.
Told her I was “traditional beneath the surface.”
Warned her I hated conflict.
Brooke once told Anna I was uncomfortable with her law-school plans.
I had never said that.
Then came the part that made my stomach tighten.
“Your mother kept telling me about Emily.”
Emily had been my high-school girlfriend.
“She said you still compared everyone to her.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
At twenty-three, Anna had believed my family knew me better than she did.
So when Mom told her I was having doubts and Dad called asking her not to “pressure me into choosing,” Anna did what she thought was respectful.
She stepped away.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
I remembered an argument in my college apartment.
Anna saying my family was too involved.
Me telling her Mom was only trying to help.
Anna finally saying:
“If I have to prove your mother is manipulating you, she has already won.”
I had called that dramatic.
My throat tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“No. I mean it.”
Anna was quiet.
Then she said something unexpectedly kind.
“You were trained to mistake intrusion for care. That’s hard to see from inside.”
After the call, I sat alone for a long time.
Lily came downstairs eventually carrying two coffees.
I told her everything.
She listened.
When I finished, she asked, “Are you thinking about Anna?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I stared at her.
She smiled slightly.
“I’m compassionate, Ethan. I’m not supernatural.”
I laughed despite myself.
Then she grew serious.
“This means Rachel isn’t the first.”
“No.”
“And your mom has been doing this for years.”
“Yes.”
Lily handed me my coffee.
“Then maybe the question isn’t why she wants Rachel.”
She waited.
“Maybe the question is why she needs to choose at all.”
May you like
That question followed me straight into Part 10.
But first, my father had to decide whether he was finally ready to stop protecting the answer.
