Ben looked down.
“Grandma’s an adult.”
“I know.”
“I thought adults know what’s right.”
That hurt more than I expected.
I pulled him against me.
“Adults can be wrong too.”
He rested his head against me.
Then I told him something I desperately wanted him to remember.
“If any adult ever tells you to keep something secret because telling me would upset me, you tell me anyway.”
He looked up.
“Even if you’ll get mad?”
“Especially then.”
He was quiet for a moment.
Then he said,
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
I hugged him tighter.
He didn’t need to explain.
He was seven.
He should never have been placed in that position in the first place.
Almost a year passed.
Brenda turned one.
Diane was no longer part of our everyday lives. Whatever contact there was happened only within boundaries Daniel and I controlled.
