Chapter 12 - WHAT REENA WAS ACTUALLY PROTECTING
The confrontation happened in a supervised family-services room three days later.
Not because Peter wanted one.
Because Reena requested contact with the children.
Drew refused to enter unless Peter stayed nearby.
The supervisor allowed Peter to sit against the far wall.
Lily climbed into his lap immediately.
Reena saw it.
Her mouth tightened.
“Lily, come see me.”
Lily buried her face in Peter’s shirt.
Reena looked at him.
“You’re teaching her this.”
Peter said nothing.
The supervisor reminded Reena to address the children.
Reena tried again.
Drew finally spoke.
“Why did you say Dad wanted the downstairs?”
Reena’s eyes moved toward the supervisor.
Then Peter.
“Your dad had rules.”
“Did he tell you to lock it?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Drew looked at her.
“Then why did you?”
Reena pressed her lips together.
The supervisor did not rescue her from the question.
Finally Reena said, “Because after your father died, I couldn’t handle you running all over that house at night.”
“I was getting Lily water.”
“You were always getting Lily something.”
Drew flinched.
Peter’s hands tightened around the chair.
Reena noticed.
“There. That look. You’ve always thought you were better than me.”
Peter answered quietly.
“This isn’t about me.”
“It was always about you.”
She turned toward him despite the supervisor’s warning.
“Mark compared everything to you. Peter would know how to fix this. Peter knows kids. Peter knows money. Peter knows the house.”
Her voice cracked.
“I married a man who was still living inside a family I could never get into.”
Peter stared at her.
There it was.
Not an excuse.
A motive.
Reena had not hated Drew because he was difficult.
Drew represented Mark’s first wife.
Peter represented Mark’s first family.
Every person Mark loved before Reena became evidence that she might never be enough.
So she made herself necessary by making everyone else unreliable.
Drew was dangerous.
Peter was hostile.
Ellen was intrusive.
The school exaggerated.
The babysitter misunderstood.
Only Reena knew what was really happening.
After Mark died, desperation joined resentment.
The salon was failing.
Bills were due.
Two traumatized children needed more than she wanted to give.
Control became confinement.
Peter stood when the session ended.
Reena looked at Drew.
“I did everything after your dad died.”
Drew answered with six-year-old simplicity.
“You didn’t feed Lily.”
Reena had no response.
For the first time, Peter understood what accountability would require.
May you like
Not proving Reena was a monster.
Proving she had repeatedly chosen herself when two children depended on her.
