Chapter 6 - Bianca Had Been Building A Story About Milo
Adrian reviewed months of messages.
The pattern became obvious.
Bianca had been preparing him to distrust Milo.
He cried for forty minutes because I asked him to clean up.
He’s obsessed with Hannah again.
He keeps saying I’m mean whenever I enforce boundaries.
Your son knows exactly how to make you feel guilty.
You baby him because of what happened to Hannah.
Adrian’s replies were worse than he remembered.
Try not to engage.
He needs consistency.
I’ll talk to him.
Once:
Maybe he does need firmer consequences.
That message made him put the phone down.
Milo had not only been trapped by Bianca.
His own father had unknowingly authorized the language Bianca used to justify it.
Not the closet specifically.
Never that.
But “firmer consequences.”
Bianca had taken vague parental agreement and stretched it until cruelty fit inside.
Adrian could not blame all of that on manipulation.
Some of it was laziness.
He wanted marriage to work.
Wanted Milo to adapt.
Wanted conflict to become temporary.
So whenever Bianca provided an explanation that allowed him to keep everything intact, he accepted it.
Truth would have required action.
Excuses allowed routine.
He chose routine.
May you like
Until the closet door opened.
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