His Child, My Blood Revenge

Chapter 2

The next morning, the foundation called me. They wanted our family to do an interview.

Then they sent me a video. The headline read:

"Six-Year-Old Boy Heroically Saves His Cousin From Fire"

Ollie sat on Lance's lap, wrapped in Lance's coat.

Blair spoke to the camera. "He could've gotten out first, but he couldn't bear to leave his cousin behind."

Her eyes turned red. "After everything he's been through, he finally has someone he can count on again."

On screen, Lance gently rubbed Ollie's head. "He's got me now."

I stared at those words. Last night, Tess had stayed awake until 2 in the morning waiting for that same man.

Tess heard the video and turned her head toward me.

"Mommy, that's not what happened."

She told me Ollie had run behind one of the temporary barriers backstage. Then something fell over. He got so scared he froze and couldn't move.

Tess was the one who pushed him toward the exit.

Then Blair grabbed Ollie and pulled him away, but Tess's sleeve got caught on a metal rack.

By the time she freed herself, the smoke was everywhere. She couldn't see anyone anymore.

I wrapped my arms around her. "I believe you."

But she kept looking over my shoulder. "Can you make Daddy listen too?"

I called Lance. He told me the foundation had arranged the video because they wanted to give Ollie some encouragement after the trauma.

"So encouraging him means making our daughter lie?"

"No one said she's lying. She inhaled smoke, and she was terrified. It's normal for her memory to be a little mixed up."

"Ollie was in the same fire. Why don't you think his memory could be wrong?"

Lance didn't answer.

After a moment, he said, "Both kids made it out alive. Do we really need to fight over who saved who?"

I looked at Tess lying in that hospital bed.

She wasn't asking for a medal. She wasn't asking anyone to thank her.

She was desperately trying to make Lance understand one thing. She hadn't abandoned Ollie.

And Lance couldn't even be bothered to hear the whole story.

At the end of the video, they showed a picture of Tess lying in her hospital bed.

I had taken that photo and sent it to Lance the night before, begging him to hurry over.

Now, with Blair's voice playing over it, Tess's worst moment had become proof of her son's bravery.

I emailed the foundation immediately. I demanded that they stop using Tess's name and the photo of her in the hospital. I CC'd every partner organization involved in the event.

An hour later, the video was taken down.

The local TV interview they had already scheduled was put on hold too.

My father called and asked if I was really determined to humiliate the entire family.

I didn't answer when he called a second time.

Lance arrived soon after. "The interview crew was already there. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for Blair?"

Tess flinched in the hospital bed.

Lance noticed. He lowered his voice, but he still wanted to know why I'd made such a big deal out of everything.

I held my phone up in front of his face. "I took this picture for you. Not for her to use as publicity. I sent it because I was begging you to come see your daughter. Instead, you took a picture of her at the most terrified she'd ever been and used it to make someone else's kid feel better."

Lance had nothing to say.

Finally, right in front of me, he called the person in charge and told them to retract everything they had already sent to the media.

The promised interview was gone. Now he had to personally explain where the false information had come from.

I closed my email. Even then, I still wanted him to sit beside Tess for a while.

Back then, I still thought that if we corrected what had gone wrong, maybe we could go back to focusing on Tess.

Tess slowly pulled her left hand out from under the blanket and grabbed the cuff of his sleeve.

"Daddy, I really did pull him out."

Lance stroked her hair. "Daddy knows you were brave too."

Too.

He didn't say he believed her.

Tess heard the difference. Her lower lip trembled, and tears filled her eyes again.

Lance sighed softly. "Okay, that's enough. Don't cry. If Ollie finds out you're still this upset, he's going to think this is all his fault. He already feels terrible."

I reached over and pulled my daughter into my arms.

"She's in pain. She's allowed to cry. "

"I'm just trying to keep both kids from getting hurt."

"Then why is she the only one you're telling to stop?"

Lance left not long after.

Once he was gone, Tess looked up at me. "Mommy, does it hurt Ollie more when he cries than it hurts me?"

I shook my head.

She didn't understand. She thought about it for a while, then asked, "If I cry quieter next time, do you think Daddy will stay longer?"

I buried my face in her hair.

For years, I'd convinced myself that if I could just put up with a little more, swallow a little more, then at least I could give Tess a whole family.

But now she was learning something else instead. She was learning how to hurt a little less loudly. How to cry a little more quietly. How to make herself smaller so Lance wouldn't get annoyed and walk away.

That night, when the nurse changed her bandages, Tess bit down on her lip the entire time.

The nurse smiled at her. "You're such a brave girl."

Only I knew the truth.

It wasn't that she didn't want to cry. She was scared to.