“I think she did sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“I think people can love someone and still treat them badly.”
“Then love is bad?”
“No.”
He struggled.
“Love doesn’t make bad behavior good.”
Emma thought.
“Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still?”
Adrian stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what parts of what I feel have which names.”
Emma frowned.
“That’s weird.”
“Yes.”
“Do you love Mom?”
“Always.”
“Even though she’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Emma smiled.
“That one’s easy.”
It was.
Lauren’s case was not.
The divorce took a year.
The financial prosecution longer.
Lauren eventually pleaded guilty to charges connected to fraudulent billing and unauthorized financial access.
Matthew faced more serious charges across several businesses.
Adrian did not attend every hearing.
He attended one.
Lauren entered the courtroom wearing a dark suit.
Her hair shorter.
No wedding ring.
When she saw Adrian, she stopped.
For several seconds they looked at each other.
Adrian remembered their wedding.
Lauren holding Emma’s hands while promising in front of eighty guests that she would “love the family that made Adrian who he is.”
Had she meant it?
Maybe.
That no longer mattered enough.
At a break, Lauren approached through counsel.
She was permitted thirty seconds.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian looked at her.
“For what?”
Her eyes filled.
“Emma.”
“Be specific.”
Lauren swallowed.
“For making her afraid of losing you.”
That answer mattered more than “the bowl.”
More than “losing my temper.”
She understood the deepest injury.
Adrian remained silent.
Lauren continued.
“I told myself I was teaching her to respect me.”
He said quietly, “Respect and fear are not the same.”
“I know.”
“You know now.”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked toward her lawyer.
Then back.
“Do not contact her.”
“I won’t.”
“If she ever wants contact when she’s older, that will be her decision.”
Lauren nodded.
“Okay.”
Adrian walked away.
He did not forgive her.
Not then.
Maybe not ever.
He also stopped needing to hate her every day.
Hatred required attention.
Emma needed that attention more.
Three years passed.
The kitchen changed.
Not dramatically.
Adrian considered ripping out the entire marble floor.
Dr. Shah advised against transforming the room into a monument to fear.
So he kept it.
But Ranger’s bowl moved.
Not because Emma demanded it.
Because Adrian could not look at it there.