Backlands by Michael McGarrity

from Jeannie’s fate. I don’t think I could endure losing an only child. Burying Molly and losing CJ in the war were bad enough.”
    Patrick’s jaw dropped a little. He searched Emma’s face for any hint of mockery and found none. She’d divorced him after he’d forced himself on her, calling him a loathsome rapist and an incompetent father and compelling him to sign legal papers acknowledging Matthew as his natural son before the child was even born. Now she was thanking him.
    â€œDo you mean that?” he asked.
    Emma smiled slightly. “Don’t take it as a full pardon of your behavior.”
    â€œThere are no halfway pardons,” Patrick noted emphatically.
    Emma shrugged off Patrick’s strong reaction. “I was just being snippy.” She walked to Matthew, took him by the hand, and continued down the path to the street.
    â€œWhat were you talking about?” Matt asked.
    â€œNothing important,” Emma replied.
    Matt frowned at her answer.
    â€œShe was telling me that I’m a damn fool who made too many mistakes,” Patrick explained.
    â€œIs that why you’re divorced?” Matt asked.
    â€œYep,” Patrick answered.
    â€œI’m glad,” Matt announced.
    â€œI’m sorry to hear that,” Patrick replied.
    Matt shrugged and fell silent.
    Emma yanked Matt’s hand. “Don’t be disrespectful, young man.”
    â€œNo harm done,” Patrick interjected.
    â€œSorry,” Matt said obediently.
    Emma sighed and shook her head in displeasure at Matthew as they turned the corner onto Main Street. “Come with us to the house. We have a lot to talk about.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œMatthew’s future,” she answered. “Someday it will be in your hands. At least a part of it, and I want no misunderstandings between us.”
    Patrick’s throat tightened. “Got it all figured, have you?”
    â€œWhy, yes, I think I do.”
    â€œI’m not going home,” Matt said, yanking free from Emma. “I don’t want to hear it, not ever.” He clamped his hands over his ears and scowled at them.
    Emma pulled his hands away from his ears. “Stop that.”
    Matt struggled, broke free, and covered his ears again. “I shoulda caught him!” he cried. “I shoulda stopped him. It’s my fault Jimmy’s dead.”
    â€œNo, no, no,” Emma said, reaching to embrace Matt, who turned and took off running full tilt down Main Street.
    â€œThat boy is hurting something fierce,” Patrick said as he watched Matt dart around pedestrians on the sidewalk and disappear down a side street.
    â€œIt’s not just that. Ever since the accident he’s been asking me when I’m going to die. He hates the notion of it now more than ever.”
    â€œI hate that idea myself.”
    Emma raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
    â€œYes, ma’am. Aren’t you going to fetch him back?”
    Emma shook her head. “Let him go. Are you coming to the house?”
    â€œI surely am. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got cooked up for the boy.”
    Emma looked up at Patrick and smiled. “The
boy
is your son, Patrick, and I’d appreciate it if you call him by his name.”
    â€œI’ll surely try.”
    â€œThank you. You probably won’t like what I have to say to you.”
    â€œWell then, let’s get it over and done with.”
    ***
    P atrick Kerney sat silently at the kitchen table over a cup of coffee as Emma skimmed through the general terms of the trust she’d established for Matt. It effectively cut him out from any say or control over how her assets could be used to benefit the boy. While she made it sound like it was all simply the best for Matt, Patrick took it as a slap in his face. Her trust document might as well have just come out and said that he was a scoundrel not to be counted on to look after his own flesh