Chapter 10 - DEREK’S MOTHER
Derek’s mother, Linda Morgan, contacted me after the recording became part of court filings.
I expected hostility.
Instead she asked to meet through Maya.
Public office.
No Derek.
I agreed.
Linda was sixty-two.
Retired school secretary.
Tired face.
She held her purse with both hands.
First words:
“I’m sorry.”
Not:
But.
Not:
He loves you.
Just:
“I’m sorry.”
Then:
“I knew he could be controlling.”
My chest tightened.
“How much did you know?”
“He did it with girlfriends.”
“What?”
“Not like this.”
Of course.
Then she explained.
Derek’s father left when Derek was fourteen.
Custody fight.
Money.
Betrayal.
Derek became obsessed with people leaving.
As a teenager, he read his mother’s messages.
Blocked one boyfriend’s number.
Hid car keys.
She called it protectiveness.
Then in his twenties, a girlfriend accused him of controlling her money.
Linda believed Derek’s explanation.
She was irresponsible.
He was helping.
Another girlfriend said he threatened to ruin her reputation.
Linda thought breakup anger.
Pattern visible backward.
Then Linda said:
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
She cried.
I did not comfort her.
Then:
“Did he ever get violent?”
“Punched a door once.”
Again.
Walls.
Objects.
Then she handed Maya a box.
Old letters.
One from Derek at twenty-three to a former girlfriend, Emily.
If you leave me, I’ll make sure your parents know what you did.
What did she do?
Nothing criminal.
She had borrowed money from Derek.
He used debt as leverage.
Again.
Then another old email:
You owe me after everything I paid for.
Same language.
Different woman.
Linda had kept it because Emily threatened legal action, then settled privately.
No police report.
No public case.
Private endings protect patterns sometimes.
Then Linda said:
“Derek learned from his father that money keeps people.”
Important.
Not excuse.
Context.
Then she told us Derek’s father, James, controlled all household income.
When Linda finally left, she took almost nothing.
Derek watched.
He internalized:
Leaving = financial destruction.
Then later repeated it from the other side.
Pain transmitted into entitlement.
Understanding did not restore safety.
But it made the story deeper than a bad husband suddenly becoming dangerous.
Patterns grow.
Then Linda asked:
“Can I see the baby when he’s born?”
I said:
“I don’t know.”
She nodded.
Good.
She accepted uncertainty.
That made future contact possible.
Then Maya opened the box.
One document was not old relationship drama.
It was a handwritten promissory note from Derek’s father to Derek.
$90,000.
Inheritance advance.
Due upon James Morgan’s death.
James was still alive.
And Derek had already listed that ninety thousand as cash available in his business refinance.
Another financial assumption built on future money.
Linda’s apology remained complicated.
She had ignored warnings.
May you like
She had also been controlled in her own marriage.
Compassion and boundaries could occupy the same room.
