Chapter 13: White lie

My breath hitched in my throat. I was shocked. “Saw your father? Where, honey?” I asked, my voice trembling slightly.

“In my dream,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “He was tall and had kind eyes. He was smiling.”

I swallowed hard, my heart pounding in my chest. It was just a dream, I told myself. But a shiver ran down my spine. It was impossible for him to have seen his father, Franco. Connor had no idea who his father was. I'd kept that part of his life a secret, a painful wound I hadn't yet been ready to open.

"What did your father say in your dream?" I asked, trying to sound calm.

"He said he loved me, Mommy," he said, beaming. "He said he missed me."

A wave of conflicting emotions washed over me. Relief that he was happy in his dream, fear that this might be something more, and a deep, aching loneliness that I couldn't quite place. I couldn't breathe. The thought of him possibly seeing Franco, the man who had broken my heart and abandoned me, sent a cold dread through me. But I knew