He paused for a very long moment. So long that she wondered if he’d disconnected. “Jones?” she whispered.
“There’s Everett,” he answered softly.
Her lungs froze at that, her throat shut. It was the tremble in her jaw that broke her free, because she’d been scared for so many years, and she desperately wanted to be brave instead. “How dare you? How dare you threaten me like that?”
“It’s not a threat. I just want to speak to him. That’s all. I hoped he might answer the phone since he’s older now. Twelve.”
“I know—” She closed her mouth and took a moment to lower her voice on the off chance Everett didn’t have his earbuds in. “I know how old my son is, Jones. I don’t need you to tell me.”
“I know how old he is too, Lily. He’s still my son. When I called last time, you said I could talk to him when he’s older. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think he’s old enough to keep a secret.”
“You want your son to be in on the conspiracy? You want him to help you hide? Live with the lies? That’s disgusting. You left us. You chose that. You burned down our whole world and didn’t even look back to see if we were okay.”
“I knew you’d be okay. I never involved you in anything. Never had you sign any forms or open any accounts for me—”
“That’s your standard? I’m not in prison? Everett’s not in foster care? So we’re fine?”
“Well, you’re better off than I am.”
She actually felt an urge to laugh at that absurdity. “Jesus Christ, we didn’t do anything wrong, Jones. You’re the criminal. You’re the lying, thieving piece-of-shit fugitive who’s never been honest one day in his life. You deserve to live how you’re living. We don’t. We didn’t deserve any of this.”
He had the nerve to sigh as if she made him tired. “Can we please not do this again? I just want to talk to my boy.”
Madness. That’s what this was. Pure madness that her fugitive ex-husband thought he should be able to drop into their lives at any moment without being hassled about it.
“A boy needs his father,” he said, and she swallowed hard to keep from belting out a wordless scream of rage.
“Jones,” she growled. “You sent Everett a card on his seventh birthday, and I gave it to him. I did. And then two years passed before you wrote again. He waited. He waited for you to write again, or to come back for him, and you didn’t. A boy doesn’t need a father he can’t count on. I won’t let you slide in and out of his life like the slimy little secret you are. You already let him down in the biggest way possible. He loved you so much and you abandoned him.”
“He’s old enough to make his own decisions about me now.”
“No, he’s not. He’s a child.”
“I was working at thirteen, supporting myself, making my own money.”
“You’d already been in juvie once by then, from what the cops told me.”
“Lily—”
“Don’t call here again. If you do, I’ll hang up and call the police. If I hear one hint of you, one hint, I’ll turn you in. Maybe then they’ll finally believe I didn’t help you steal anything.”
He stayed quiet for a long moment. “Didn’t you?”
Her hands shook. She’d made one mistake. One. She wasn’t going to sacrifice her son’s well-being over that. Jones could go straight to hell.
“If you’re still alive when Everett is eighteen, go ahead and reach out. I’ll take the fall for being the mean mom who kept you at bay, because I’m an adult who accepts responsibility for her actions. Right now all my responsibility is for him. Goodbye, Jones.”
She hung up, ears buzzing with adrenaline, eyes wide and darting over every surface of the room. Oh God, had Everett heard any of that?
Leaping from bed, she hurried to her door and cracked it open. The front room lurked dark and quiet, Everett’s door still shut tight. The bathroom between them would have muffled her words before they could leak through his wall. He was safe. Or she was.
Lily got herself a glass of water and raised it with a shaky hand. She hoped that would stop her tears, but they still came, and she had to cover her mouth and rush back to her room before a sob could escape.
Everett had only the one birthday card. He didn’t know about the others. Didn’t know about the calls. Jones had gotten more persistent recently, but she’d keep him from Everett as long as she could.