Chapter 17 - The Call He Should Have Made
Daniel started therapy three weeks after the wedding.
Not because Claire told him he was unstable.
Because he wanted to understand how he had ignored his own instincts.
The answer was not flattering.
He avoided conflict.
He outsourced emotional problems to the person who sounded most confident.
Claire always sounded confident.
Margaret rarely demanded attention.
So Daniel mistook quiet for fine.
One afternoon he sat with his mother on the back porch.
“I keep thinking about the first week Claire said you were overwhelmed.”
Margaret stirred iced tea.
“What about it?”
“I could have called.”
“Yes.”
“You would have answered.”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“I did.”
Daniel frowned.
She had called twice.
Both calls went straight to voicemail.
Claire had blocked Margaret’s number on Daniel’s phone for forty-eight hours, then unblocked it before he noticed.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Small controls.
Tiny distances.
Margaret continued.
“After that message, I thought you wanted space.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I would never—”
“I know that now.”
But she had not known then.
That was the damage.
Daniel apologized.
This time, Margaret let him finish.
“I should have called from another phone. I should have asked you directly. I let somebody else explain you to me.”
Margaret nodded.
“That’s the part to remember.”
He looked at her.
“Not the mud?”
“The mud was just mud.”
Inside, Robert was cooking dinner badly as part of his ongoing effort to be useful without turning usefulness into apology theater.
Margaret still had not invited him back into their bedroom.
Daniel respected that.
Healing was not a montage.
Then Robert stepped outside holding a letter.
“It came from the prosecutor.”
Claire had accepted a plea agreement.
Grant had not.
May you like
His case was going to trial.
And the prosecution wanted Margaret to testify.
