Chapter 7 - Adrienne Did Not Know Wade Had Threatened Owen
There was one distinction I needed to establish immediately.
“Did you tell Wade to scare Owen?”
Adrienne’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“Did you tell Wade to stop him from telling me?”
“No.”
“Did you know Wade spoke to him?”
“I knew they talked.”
“What did you think he said?”
Her silence lasted too long.
“Adrienne.”
She wiped her eyes.
“Wade said he reassured him.”
I laughed once, bitterly.
“Reassured him?”
She flinched.
I told her about the garage.
The warning that telling me could make Mom leave.
Then the golf ball.
Adrienne stopped crying.
Real shock replaced it.
“He hit Owen deliberately?”
“Maren watched him line up the shot.”
She covered her mouth.
That reaction looked genuine.
I believed she had not ordered or anticipated the assault.
That did not save her.
She had still asked a seven-year-old to conceal an affair.
She had still allowed Wade access to him after the discovery.
She had still chosen secrecy over her child’s emotional safety.
But I refused to make her guilty of something the evidence did not support.
Wade’s intimidation belonged to Wade.
Adrienne’s betrayal belonged to Adrienne.
My failure to listen to Owen belonged to me.
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All three truths could exist at once.
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