Chapter 14 - DIANE CAME TO MY HOUSE WITHOUT RYANDiane asked to see me after the divorce was final.
I almost refused.
Then accepted.
Public café.
She arrived without pearls.
I noticed because she always wore pearls when she wanted to feel superior.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
Good start.
I waited.
She continued.
“I knew Ryan was pressuring you financially.”
“Yes.”
“I encouraged it.”
“Yes.”
“I believed wives should support husbands through temporary crises.”
I said nothing.
Then:
“I also knew he was rough with you.”
My stomach tightened.
“How much did you know?”
“The wrist grabbing.”
“What else?”
“The phone.”
“Anything before Wednesday?”
She looked down.
“He told me you were becoming difficult.”
I laughed once.
“Diane.”
“I know.”
“Did you ever ask me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Her answer came quietly.
“Because if you told me he was becoming like Alan, I would have had to hear it.”
There.
The generational wound.
She had spent years insisting Ryan was different.
I threatened the story.
So she made me the problem.
Then Diane said:
“I should have helped you leave.”
I stared at her.
“Instead you helped him corner me.”
“Yes.”
No explanation afterward.
That mattered.
She slid a small box across the table.
My mother’s earrings.
I had left them at the Cross house after the birthday.
Ryan apparently gave them to Diane.
She had kept them.
“Why now?”
“Because they’re yours.”
Simple.
I took the box.
“Thank you.”
She stood.
Then stopped.
“Ava?”
“Yes?”
“Charles was right.”
“About what?”
She gave a sad smile.
“Ryan needed someone to tell him no before he started believing no was betrayal.”
Then she left.
I did not forgive her that afternoon.
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But for the first time, I believed she might understand what she had done.
That was enough.
