Chapter 6 - The Person I Expected to Defend Mom
I called Grandma.
Mom’s mother.
If anyone was going to tell me I had misunderstood everything, it was her.
Grandma loved Mom fiercely.
Through the separation, she had defended her so often that I sometimes thought she was part of the divorce.
When I told her what happened, she went quiet.
Then she said, “Is Ethan with your father?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I sat straighter.
“You’re not going to tell me to bring him home?”
“No.”
That shocked me.
Then she surprised me again.
“Brooke, I’ve been worried about Gary for months.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did.”
“To who?”
“Your mother.”
Grandma told me Gary had started making comments at family dinners about Ethan being “soft” and needing “discipline.”
Once, at a cookout, he had grabbed Ethan by the shoulder hard enough that Grandma told him to let go.
Mom became furious.
Not with Gary.
With Grandma.
“She said I was undermining her household,” Grandma said.
“Why didn’t you tell Dad?”
“Because your mother asked me not to make the divorce worse.”
I stood and started pacing.
“So everyone protected the divorce while Ethan got scared in his own house?”
“That’s not what I thought I was doing.”
“But it is what happened.”
Grandma didn’t argue.
That mattered.
She said, “You’re right.”
Adults almost never said that quickly.
Grandma had made a mistake too.
So had I.
Then she told me something I hadn’t known.
Mom was terrified of losing the house.
Dad had continued paying court-ordered child support and part of the mortgage while the property issue was pending, but Mom’s income from the dental office was not enough to carry the house permanently.
Gary had been covering other expenses.
Utilities.
Groceries.
A plumbing repair.
Part of Ethan’s summer camp.
“So she needs him,” I said.
“She thinks she does.”
For several hours, that explanation almost satisfied me.
Mom tolerated Gary because she was financially scared.
It was awful, but human.
I could understand fear of losing a home.
Then Grandma ruined that explanation with one sentence.
“She was talking about moving before Gary ever helped with the mortgage.”
“Moving where?”
“Cincinnati. Maybe Kentucky. Wherever Gary’s company transfers him.”
I stopped pacing.
Dad and Mom were fighting over parenting time.
Ethan’s supposed fear of Dad had become part of that fight.
And Mom had already been talking about moving farther away.
May you like
Money explained why she tolerated Gary.
It did not explain why she needed Ethan to sound afraid of Dad.
