He thought about that. “Is Jonah still here?”
“Outside. He can come in if you want. You are in charge of that part.”
Mason considered the back door. “He can come in. I’m hungry.”
They ate at the table because the occasion was too serious for the couch and too tired for a performance. Jonah came in, washed his hands because Lauren asked him to, and sat at the end, not too close to Mason. Derek watched his son examine the sandwich and then the young man and then his mother. The boy’s fear had not left. It had changed jobs. It was no longer trying to stop a departure. It was trying to understand the house it had managed to keep.
Lauren put the crust of her own sandwich down. “Mason, I told you something that wasn’t true, and I told you that you heard a true thing wrong. Both of those were wrong of me. You’re not in trouble. Jonah is my son. I had him a long time before I had you, before I knew your dad. Grandpa and Grandma raised him and we all said he was my brother so it would be easier. It wasn’t easier. It was a lie that got big. He is your brother. He doesn’t live here. He isn’t taking your room. He isn’t taking your dad. Nobody is leaving tonight.”
Mason’s eyes shone and did not spill. He looked at Derek. “Did you know?”