“You won’t give me answers to my questions, but I’ll give you one to yours—how are things? They’re horrible, Cole. I’m on a walk outside right now because I’m tired of pretending like I don’t hear my mom crying.”

My vision of Cincinnati is blurred by the tears filling my eyes.

“She tries to hide it from me,” he says, his voice wavering. “She’s such a good mom. She doesn’t want me to worry, but I do worry because I’m the only person looking out for her.”

“That’s not true. I—”

“It is true. You left.” He spits the words out like they’re a death sentence. “You’re the only thing that makes her happy. You made our life so good because you were nice to us. You helped us. You were fun to be around, and you cared about us. We thought you did, anyway.”

A frog sits in my throat as I try to blink back my tears. I’ve never felt as low as I do right now—all at the hands of a preteen.

“I do care about you,” I say. “I care about both of you.”

“Then how do I fix her? How do I make her stop crying? How do I fix this and go back to before we knew you?”

Don’t. Please. Don’t do that.

Remember me, Ethan.

“Buddy, I’m sorry,” I say.

“We could go to California,” he says, starting to ramble. “Did you think about that? Or you could stay here. You could go do what you have to do and come back.”

“It’s not that easy—”

“Or we could go somewhere in the middle. Would that be better? What about Colorado? It’s in the middle. We’ll go anywhere.”

I smile sadly, wiping the tears off my chin. If only it were that easy.

“Where is your mom right now?” I ask him, needing to know she’s safe.

“She’s in the house talking to Kirk. Her boss. His wife is dying. It just makes Mom sadder and more stressed out.”

A jolt of pain tears across my brain, making me wince. I think back to the last time I saw Palmer and her anguish over her boss. And I made it worse.

“I don’t know which side would be worse—Charlotte’s, because it’s her life that’s ending, or Kirk’s? Because his life is ending too.”

Her words echo through my brain. “His life is ending too.”

Damn if I don’t understand that.

I can’t imagine having to watch the love of my life pass away. But on the other side of that coin, I know I wouldn’t trade it for the world.