even if the fire goes out, the embers keep glowing

 Lynsey didn't want to tell Chance how bad it was. She couldn't even tell him she'd left his brother. As it was Chance was family. "I'm sorry we couldn't make it for Thanksgiving."

"It's OK, I told my parents Erro was sick," Chance said they'd all spent Thanksgiving at Rosie's and he thought his parents were Thanksgiven out. "Maybe Christmas will be better. We'll all get together. I mean, it doesn't have to be Christmas day or anything."

"Maybe." But Lynsey doubted that.

"I'll talk to Casey, OK?"

"OK." Really, she didn't even want to hear his name. After she clicked off her Android, she felt so tired. Seriously, she might as well have the flu, but life went on and she didn't feel sad at all for Casey. She couldn't. At least not yet.

Charles brought her a cup of herbal tea. He wanted to know how she was feeling. She'd put in a full day at work. Of course, Erro spent the day with Charles and he was already asleep in the crib that Charles set up for him in Lynsey's room. 

"I'll try to find a sitter for him," Lynsey told him.

"Oh, it's fine. We really aren't that busy at the theater. I know we want to be," he shrugged, but he said the Nutcracker would debut next week. Hopefully, families would come. Although, Hamilton played in the city a few weeks ago. He'd had a chance to go. "I know we are nothing compared to a production like that, but we have a few of the locals taking the stage, so hopefully we can fill the seats, maybe."

She sipped the tea and he went into the livingroom and turned off the TV. "Just take your time. I think that would be best. Don't hurry on my account."

Suddenly, her face flushed and she was full of tears. She put down the tea. And she sat down on the couch alone. "I...I wish I could talk about it. I really do." Her eyes were so watery she couldn't even see. "I can't even think about what Casey said." She shook her head. "I don't want to see him. I can't." Her nose was running. She was choking up and Charles reached for a box of tissue.

"We're all a little damaged, you know," he told her. "It's hard to absorb. To understand. Especially, where other people are coming from." 

Charles sat in his big leather chair with his arms crossed. "Sometimes, it can change the outcome."

She looked at him wondering what he meant as she cleared her throat.

"Poppy thinks she was raised by her Aunt, that was the way her mother wanted it. I was young when Poppy was born and though she always made it my fault we couldn't all be together... because she was a good twenty years older than me..She's never wanted Poppy to know who her mother really was." He nursed his bottom lip. "Some secrets can last a lifetime."