I kept getting stuck on one question. Why hadn’t she just told me she couldn’t accept my children? If she’d said, “Ben, I don’t think I can do that,” I would’ve paid for dinner, wished her well, and driven home. At least that would have been honest.
I would’ve been sad for a week. I would’ve been fine.
Instead, she’d taken notes, and her mother had helped her.
At least that would have been honest.
And that was the part I couldn’t get past. It wasn’t just Claire. It was a mother teaching her daughter that my children were an obstacle to be removed. Two women coaching each other over months about how to get rid of Lily and Grace.
I thought about waking Claire up right then. Shaking her shoulder and saying, “I saw it! Get out!”
I thought about it for a long time.
But quiet wasn’t enough.
