The Weight of Secrets
Ryan Ross was a good kid.
Everyone in Easttown would tell you that. He played basketball. He got decent grades. He loved his mom, looked up to his dad, annoyed his siblings the normal amount.
He wasn't supposed to see the text messages. His dad left his phone on the counter and it buzzed, and Ryan looked because that's what kids do.
What he read destroyed everything.
His father was having an affair. With Erin McMenamin—the teenager everyone in town pitied. And the baby everyone thought belonged to Dylan? That was his father's baby. His half-brother.
Ryan was thirteen years old and suddenly carrying a secret that could blow his family apart.
He didn't tell anyone. He couldn't. His mom was happy. His family was normal. If anyone found out...
So Ryan did what he thought he had to do. He took his dad's gun—the one he wasn't supposed to know about—and he went to see Erin.
He just wanted to scare her. Make her go away. Save his family.
Instead, he pulled the trigger.
And nothing would ever be normal again.