I walk over to the fireplace and look at the picture sitting on the mantel. It’s the first picture they took of Ethan when they placed him on my chest. I will never forget that feeling. It was an all-consuming love, a love I could never put into words. “That night was prom.” My finger traces Ethan in the picture. I turn to look at him, and he sits there, looking like he wants to jump up and grab me, but he knows I have to get this out. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to go to.” I shake my head. “No,” I say. “I’m lying. I wanted to come to you.” I’m going to blame the whiskey for that slip. His mouth opens, but I don’t give him a chance to say anything. “I wanted to run straight to you but …” I shake my head. “I just couldn’t tell you. I didn’t want to see the look of disgust on your face.”

He jumps up now, and before I even know what is happening, his hands are on my arms. “I would never ever do that to you,” he says, his voice high, and he moves his face closer to me. He pulls me to his chest, and for the first time ever, I sob while someone holds me. For the first time, I have someone holding me up, and I am not standing by myself.

“I’m so sorry, Savannah.” I wrap my arms around his waist. “It’s over,” he tells me with one hand holding my head.

Standing here in the middle of the living room, he holds me as I cry. This man who has been by my side since I can remember, this man who loves with his whole heart, this man who I would do anything for. “I’m sorry that I ruined your big night,” I say into his soaked shirt. My ear rests on his chest, and I listen to his heart beating. “I never wanted you to find out like that.” He just rubs my back. Neither of us says anything when his phone rings in his pocket. He ignores it, but then it rings again, and I step out of his arms.

“You should get that,” I say and try to smile. “You’re the mayor now.”

He shakes his head and takes the phone out of his back pocket. “Fuck that,” he says, declining the call. He looks at me. “It’s my father.”

“You should answer him,” I say, and his phone beeps in his hand.

He looks down and then up at me. “Emergency family meeting. Tomorrow morning.”

“Oh my God,” I say, putting my hand to my stomach. “Do you think they know?”