“Nope. I cried.” His babyish r sounded more pronounced to Lacey. Could someone be mistreating him?
“Then what did your mom do? Did she stop?”
He shook his head. “She did this.” He put his hands back on his ribs, scrunched up his face like he was straining, and the knuckles on his good hand turned white at his ribs.
She remembered the bruises Mara had noticed on Levi’s torso. Bruises Jem surely would have noticed when he picked the boy up after his weekend visit. Could it have been from the swimming “lesson”?
“Was she mad at you?”
“I dunno.”
“Did you tell your dad about learning to swim?”
“Uh-uh.” Levi shook his head, climbing back up on his chair to lean over the puzzle again. “Mommy did.”
“When he came to pick you up?”
“Uh-uh. On the phone. Dad was gone away a long time and we were playing a game.”
“Who was playing a game?”
“Mommy and me. After swimming we played a game and it was fun.”
“Then your dad called and your mommy told him you’d learned to swim?”
“Yep!” He put a piece in place—the nose of the engine face.
“Did you tell him that you cried when you learned to swim?”
“No.” Levi’s chin did a chest plant.
“Why not?” Lacey’s instincts were driving her now. She gave them free rein.
“I dunno.”
Why wouldn’t Tressa have told her ex-husband that the swimming lesson made their son cry? A lesson that was memorable enough that a four-year-old could recount it months later.
“It’s okay, sweetie. You can tell me why you didn’t tell your dad you cried. You won’t be in trouble, I
promise.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I dunno.”
“Did someone say you couldn’t tell?”
He shook his head. “I don’t wanna do this anymore,” he said, climbing down from the table.
“Hey, squirt.” Kacey grabbed him around the waist as he passed and pulled him up onto her lap. “You know that you can trust us, right? I promise you, we won’t let anyone hurt you. Ever. Okay?”
Not at all what Lacey would have said, because the promise was empty. Sometimes she couldn’t prevent the hurt. And children in abusive situations were generally lied to. They needed honesty if they were ever going to learn to trust and grow up to have a healthy relationship...
“I wanna go home.”
“I thought we were having fun here.” Kacey smiled at him, gave him a little bounce on her knee.