Chapter 12 - Diane Finally Asked About Leo
Almost three months passed before Diane asked how Leo was doing.
Not through Elena.
Through Daniel.
She had completed several sessions with a therapist her attorney recommended, partly because Elena made any future contact with the twins contingent on professional evaluation.
Daniel called Elena.
“Your mother asked whether Leo was injured.”
Elena went quiet.
“He wasn’t.”
“I told her.”
Another pause.
“She cried.”
Elena felt almost nothing.
That frightened her more than anger.
Daniel continued.
“She wants to write you.”
“I’m not ready.”
“I told her that too.”
A week later Diane sent a letter through counsel anyway, but only after Elena agreed to receive it without obligation to answer.
The first page was defensive.
Stress.
Exhaustion.
Feeling unappreciated.
The difficulty of helping an injured adult while managing twins.
Elena almost stopped reading.
Then the tone changed.
Diane wrote:
I kicked a baby because I was angry at his mother.
Elena stared at the sentence.
No minimization.
No “barely.”
No “he crawled into me.”
Just fact.
The next line was harder.
I think I had started treating your need for help like repayment for the money I was ashamed to need from you.
Elena read that twice.
That was closer.
Diane admitted she resented Michael because he recognized the financial dependency before she could admit it. After his death, she told herself caring for Elena finally reversed the relationship: now Elena needed her.
As Elena recovered, Diane felt that position slipping.
The twins became symbols of obligation rather than grandchildren.
There was no excuse.
Only explanation.
Elena folded the letter.
She did not forgive Diane.
But for the first time since the living-room incident, she believed her mother had begun speaking about what actually happened rather than what made her look best.
That was not reconciliation.
May you like
It was merely the first condition under which reconciliation might someday become imaginable.
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