Chapter 6 - The Anatomy of a Lie
Maya sat down opposite me, her gaze steady. "The night you kicked him out, Ethan walked for miles in the rain. He eventually collapsed from exhaustion and hypothermia in an alleyway near a community shelter. A social worker found him and brought him in. That social worker was my mother."
The realization settled over me. "That's how you know him."
"Yes. My mother took him in. He was severely malnourished, terrified, and refused to speak for weeks. He wouldn't tell anyone who his father was, because he believed that if his own father didn't want him, he must be a monster. He thought he was cursed."
I buried my face in my hands. The guilt was a physical weight, crushing my ribs. I did that to him. I made my own son believe he was a monster.
"But Ethan was incredibly resilient," Maya continued. "And he had an extraordinary talent. My mother noticed him drawing on scrap paper with charcoal from the fireplace. She bought him his first set of real paints. Art became his therapy. It was his way of speaking when words were too painful. We fostered him, and eventually, we adopted him formally. He took our family name, but he kept 'Amara' as his middle name to honor his mother."
"I want to see him, Maya," I begged, looking at her with desperation. "Please. Give me his number. Let me fly to London. I’ll do anything. I'll give him everything I own. I just... I need to beg for his forgiveness."
"Forgiveness isn't something you can buy, Daniel," Maya said coldly. "And frankly, I don't know if he is ready to forgive you. He spent ten years channeling his pain into his art. This exhibition was his way of letting go of you. He wanted you to see what you threw away."
May you like
"Please," I pleaded, tears streaming down my face. "Just let me try. If he rejects me, I will accept it. But I cannot live another day knowing I abandoned my own son without trying to make it right."
Maya looked at me for a long time, evaluating the sincerity of my grief. Finally, she let out a long breath and reached for a piece of paper.
