And, I hadn’t done anything to wrong Jake,
and I had been taking good care of his son.
They had said that we would stay out of each
other’s lives after going back fifteen years.
He was so focused on Sarah, and I had let
him be with her. He shouldn’t try to mess up
my life.
Before going to sleep, I put the PPT I had to
present into a USB drive. As I was getting
ready to put the drive in my purse, I saw a
blinking red light.
It had to be a bug that Jake’s son had put
there; he was capable of doing that.
I didn’t touch it and went to sleep.
I dropped my son off at school, and then I
went to work.
Alex was tailing me.
When I went to do my shift, I told him, “Wait
for me in the office. I’ll tell you what I want to
say after I get off work.”
He followed my instructions, and he even told
me, “Mom, I’ll wait for you.”
When I got back at lunch, my coworkers were
praising him: “Karen, that kid is really smart;
it seems like he hasn’t gone to high school,
but he was solving college–level math
problems.”
When he was ten, Jake’s son finished his high
school math courses, and he was solving a lot
<
of math problems on his own. Of course he
was capable of doing that.
“Is that your little brother? I didn’t know you
had a little brother.”
I was now twenty–eight, and Alex was fifteen,
so saying he was my little brother fit.
Alex opened his mouth to say something, but
I stopped him.
“Yeah, he’s from my extended family. He’s
here to play for the holidays.”
I took him out to eat, and he said, matter–of-
factly: “Mom, can you not have your son be
your child? Can I be your only child?”
I laughed, asking him, “He’s my own son, why
<
wouldn’t I?”
Alex immediately replied: “Because I’m
smarter than him. I’m fifteen, and I’m going to
be an adult in three years. I’m going to be
able to make money. I’m a lot more useful
than he is. From an investment perspective…”
I stopped him: “Sweetie, kids aren’t supposed
to be a means of making profit. Kids are
supposed to be the result of love, and being
with them and watching them grow is a
precious memory, not the investment you’re
talking about.”
“I’m never going to get rid of my son.”
Alex didn’t say anything, looking down as he
ate his food.
If he wasn’t so stubborn, I had a feeling that
he would be crying.
“Even though you’re smart, you should still go
to school. Have your dad help you set that
up.”
“You mean Jake? He wants me to die.”
Alex was cold, but he shouldn’t have said the
word ‘die.‘
I said to him softly, “Did something happen?”
Alex bit his lip hard: “He blames me for
inventing the time machine.”
“After I was separated from you, I went to
find Sarah, but when I called her Mom, she
told me to stop. She was never pregnant. I
<
got a test done too; I’m not her kid.”
Jake and Alex were both smart, and they
knew that Sarah had left not because she
didn’t want to burden the family, but because
she was afraid of the family slowing down her
future.
Alex squeezed my hand.
