Chapter 5 - Three Times She Almost Chose Eli
The first date was in March.
Laurel had packed clothes into grocery bags while Cole was at work.
Then he came home early.
“He saw the bags?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He laughed.”
Walter waited.
“He said I wouldn’t last two weeks without him.”
The second date was in April.
Laurel had called an apartment complex near Eli’s preschool.
The deposit was more than she had available.
The third date was twelve days earlier.
That time she had driven to Walter’s neighborhood.
She had even parked two streets from his house.
“Why didn’t you knock?”
Laurel looked embarrassed.
“Because Cole called.”
Walter closed his eyes.
“What did he say?”
“He knew I wasn’t home.”
“How?”
“The doorbell app.”
Walter remembered helping Laurel install the camera.
Cole had added himself to the account.
“He asked where Eli was.”
“At preschool.”
“And?”
“He said if I embarrassed him by running to my father, he’d make sure everybody knew I was an unfit mother who couldn’t control her own kid.”
Walter stared at her.
“He had no authority to decide custody.”
“I know that intellectually.”
“But you believed him emotionally.”
Laurel nodded.
“That still doesn’t explain watching him hit Eli.”
“No.”
Finally she stopped trying to explain around it.
“The first time I saw Cole smack him, I screamed at Cole.”
“What happened?”
“He stopped.”
“And the second?”
“I froze.”
“The third?”
“I told Cole to knock it off.”
Walter’s expression hardened.
“Laurel.”
“I know.”
“The fourth?”
She looked down.
“I took Eli upstairs afterward.”
Walter sat back.
There was no single moment when Laurel had chosen Cole over her son.
There had been dozens of smaller moments when fear, shame and dependence had made doing nothing easier than doing the right thing.
That did not make her innocent.
It made the failure understandable enough to hurt.
Then Walter noticed the dates on the receipts.
All three fell on nights Laurel had previously told him she was “working late.”
She had not been hiding Cole from Walter.
She had been hiding attempted escapes from Cole.
But Walter still needed to know something else.
“Why did Eli call you yesterday instead of me first?”
May you like
Laurel’s face changed.
“Because I told him to.”
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