The Perfect Lie

Chapter 24

But then she wouldn’t have Willie.

She wouldn’t have her son, the one person who had been filling the tiny gaps in her heart for four years now.

Her train of thoughts was put to a halt when the back door opened and Liam came in carrying his computer.

He looked surprised when he saw her standing before the stove.

Chanty forced a smile on her face. “Dinner will be ready in a while.”

For a moment, she saw confusion flash across his face, but he was fast to recover and his blank expression came back as he shrugged. “I am not hungry.”

Chanty felt like a bucket of ice cold water was poured over her head.

She had the initial urge to send the frying pan across the room toward him when he continued walking to the living room where the couch was.

“You’re not eating? You haven’t eaten anything since we left the city,” she argued.

He laid the computer on the small table beside the couch where he eventually sat down right in front of the fireplace. “I don’t usually eat dinner,” he uttered dryly before lying down, placing his forearm over his eyes.

“You’re sleeping?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“But--” she stopped when he turned and faced the back of the couch. “Okay, but I’ll put some aside for you to eat later in case you wake up feeling hungry.”

She waited for a response but didn’t get any.

Her shoulder sagged.

Nice try, Chanty, she thought.

*****

Liam did not sleep at all.

He even regretted pretending to be in deep slumber in the first place because he had to stay in one position and bear it for an hour or so while he listened to Chanty working in the kitchen. He heard her waking up Willie and asking her son to eat.

“We’ll go out and catch some tiny fishes tomorrow morning,” he heard her make a deal with her son.

“We will?!”

“Shh… Liam is sleeping. Keep your voice down. And yes, we will go catch some fishes tomorrow, I promise. Just finish your food.”

“Liam will come with us?” Willie asked in a whisper loud enough for Liam to hear, making him smile in secret.

“If you ask him, he might,” Chanty whispered back.

“You ask him,” Willie insisted.

“Why can’t you?”

“I want you to do it.”

“Why? You do it.”

Liam’s shoulder almost shook with laughter.

“Because you two are not talking, mommy.”

“Of course we are,” Chanty denied in her normal voice. “Of course we are,” she repeated in a whisper.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Did you fight?”

“No.”

“You’re lying, mommy.”

“Fine. We did. Now, eat your food. Or we’re not going fishing.”