“But Dad, I don’t want to lie to Mom.”
My heart broke right then and there.
“I told everyone I fell.”
“We have to, okay?” Jasper’s voice took on a sharp, impatient edge. “Your mom can’t know I wasn’t there. She’ll flip out, and you know how she gets.”
I felt a surge of rage. Jasper wasn’t there? Then where was he?
“But why?” Howard asked. “You just went to the store, and Kelly was there…”
The woman, Kelly, shifted uncomfortably. “Your mom isn’t supposed to know about me yet, remember? We talked about this, Howard.”
“Your mom can’t know I wasn’t there.”
Jasper lowered his voice. “We’ll tell her when the time is right. And when that happens, we don’t need your mom making assumptions because of this accident.”
“But… I was the one who tried doing that trick,” Howard said, his voice rising slightly. “Kelly wasn’t even watching me when I did it. She was inside, fetching her phone.”
