The faucet shut off.
Ryan stepped closer.
“You have five minutes.”
“What?”
“She’s my daughter.”
“Five minutes to tell her the truth, or I will.”
“Ryan, please.”
“She deserves to hear it from her mother,” he said. “But she deserves to hear it tonight.”
Iris came back holding a glass of water.
She stopped in the doorway. “Why does it feel like I walked into the middle of something?”
Ryan took the glass from her, but he did not drink.
“Because you did.”
Iris looked at me. “Mom?”
“Ryan, please.”
I wanted to lie, but Ryan was right.
She was the only one in the room who did not know who she was.
“Anthony is your father,” I said. “Tony, I mean. You met him tonight.”
The glass slipped from Ryan’s hand and shattered on the floor.
Iris stared at me. “No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. My father left. Mom, that’s the truth. Right?”
