Chapter 5 - RICHARD’S FIRST CHOICE
After Brooke left, Victoria turned on Richard.
“Do something.”
He stood in the middle of the living room.
For the first time, he looked genuinely lost.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Stop her.”
“I can’t stop a shareholder action.”
“You are her husband.”
That sentence told me everything about how Victoria understood marriage.
Not love.
Authority.
Richard looked toward me.
“Emma.”
I waited.
“Can we delay the liquidation?”
“No.”
“Thirty days.”
“No.”
“Two weeks.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Caleb is leaving with me tonight.”
His face changed.
“What?”
I had already packed.
Not everything.
Just enough.
Clothes.
Schoolwork.
Medication.
Caleb’s weighted blanket.
Jonah’s old baseball cap, which Caleb kept in a drawer.
We would stay at my father’s old apartment downtown.
Richard stared at me.
“You can’t take him.”
I felt something cold move through me.
“He is not property.”
“I’m his father.”
“Yes.”
“And tonight you watched your mother humiliate him.”
“I didn’t agree with her.”
I laughed once.
“Silence is agreement when you are the only person with enough power to stop the cruelty.”
Victoria interrupted.
“This is emotional manipulation.”
I turned.
“No.”
“This is a mother removing her child from a house where adults have decided his trauma inconveniences them.”
Richard looked toward Caleb.
“Son?”
Caleb did not move.
Richard walked closer.
“Caleb.”
Our son slowly lifted his eyes.
“Do you want to leave?”
I hated the question.
A child should never be made responsible for the decision adults failed to make.
Before I could stop him, Caleb answered.
“Yes.”
Richard flinched.
“With Mom?”
“Yes.”
“What about me?”
Caleb stared at him.
For a long time.
Then he whispered.
“You don’t like when I’m scared.”
Richard looked like he had been struck.
“That isn’t true.”
Caleb’s voice shook.
“You always get mad.”
“I’m not mad at you.”
“You tell me to stop.”
Richard opened his mouth.
Caleb continued.
“You say everyone’s tired.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“That is enough.”
Richard turned toward her.
“Mom.”
She stopped.
His voice was different.
“Enough.”
For half a second, hope appeared inside me.
Too late.
But there.
Victoria stared at him.
“You’re choosing her?”
Richard looked toward Caleb.
“No.”
He said quietly.
“I’m choosing my son.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“Then you deserve what she does to you.”
She walked out.
Richard watched her leave.
May you like
Then he looked at me.
For the first time in fifteen years, I saw him understand that refusing to choose had always been a choice.
