Chapter 11 - TYLER CHOOSES TO SPEAK
Tyler’s therapist recommended gradual contact with Rachel.
The first visit lasted forty-five minutes.
The second lasted an hour.
By the fourth, Tyler asked to see her apartment.
Sarah hated that.
Through her attorney, she claimed Rachel was manipulating him.
Tyler heard about it accidentally.
He became furious.
“I’m not stupid.”
He said.
I sat beside him.
“Nobody said you are.”
“Grandma thinks I am.”
His eyes filled.
“She told me Mom didn’t love me.”
I stayed quiet.
“She told me you only bought me stuff because you wanted Dad to like you.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“She said if you had a boy of your own, you’d make me leave.”
My heart hurt.
“Tyler.”
He looked at me.
“You were never temporary here.”
He nodded.
“I know now.”
Then he said something I did not expect.
“Grandma doesn’t even like boys.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“She likes being needed.”
The sentence was too mature for nine.
“What makes you say that?”
“When I started doing my own homework, she got mad.”
“When I learned to make cereal, she said I was ungrateful.”
“When I wanted to call Mom, she said I didn’t appreciate her.”
He looked down.
“She likes when people can’t leave.”
That was Sarah in one sentence.
Not a woman who loved boys more than girls.
A woman who loved dependency.
The boy language was simply the costume she gave her control.
Tyler agreed to speak with the court-appointed evaluator.
He told the truth.
About Olivia.
About the notebook.
About Sarah telling him to report me.
About the returned letters.
Then he said.
“I want to live somewhere I don’t have to pick a side.”
The evaluator asked.
“Where would that be?”
Tyler thought.
“With Mom eventually.”
He looked toward Michael and me.
“But I want to still come here.”
My eyes filled.
Michael smiled.
“Anytime.”
Tyler looked suspicious.
“Even if Grandma doesn’t live here?”
Michael laughed softly.
May you like
“Especially then.”
For the first time in months, Tyler laughed too.
